


Twisted Timelines

by SongOfTheSavannah



Category: Minecraft: Story Mode - Fandom
Genre: Character Swapping in other words, cross-posted from fanfiction.net, reverse au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-03-04 15:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 38
Words: 79,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13367220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SongOfTheSavannah/pseuds/SongOfTheSavannah
Summary: We think we know the tale of the New Order of the Stone. But in this world, things happened a little differently, and people are not who you think they are, nor are they how you remember them.{Reversal AU, birthday gift for an author on a different site}





	1. When One Story Ends...

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is a reversal au of minecraft story mode, that I have put my own twist onto.   
> I started this fic over on FF, and decided to port it over here to try and expand my audience. Updates alternate with Legends of Ninjago updates, and I've already got the first five chapters in so I'm gonna just post them all together. I'll start up the comments again after that ;)
> 
> Remember to review!  
> ~Savannah

It was finally time.

The five members of the Order of the Stone stood in the cracked stone room, watching silently as their leader placed the final eye of ender in the last empty portal. As the black portal flared to life, covering the lava, the five members all exchanged glances, before jumping in, one by one.

Emerging onto a platform made of obsidian, the five heroes readied their weapons. "Remember the plan!" their leader, a blond man with blue eyes called. He was wearing black and gray armor, with thick goggles pushed up on his forehead to keep his hair out of his face. "Olivia, you and Axel make the traps, Petra, you help me take out the towers. Jesse?" he turned his attention to a man with chin length brown hair, and feisty dark green eyes "You remember your job?" his voice was hard as he waited for the brunette to respond. Jesse rolled his eyes, and shifted his weight. He was wearing midnight blue and royal gold armor, with no helmet. A glowing diamond sword hung from his waist, and various potions hung from his belt. "I'm not an idiot Lukas" the brunette snapped "I'm the distraction while you and the others do your jobs" crossing his arms he muttered under his breath "you better keep your promise" just loud enough for Lukas to hear.

Before the blonde could respond however, one of the other three coughed, and they turned their heads in near unison to see Petra standing near a Cobblestone pathway she had built down to the main island. "Whenever you're ready" the redhead said with a near purr. Her arms were crossed but they could easily see the glint of her enchanted golden sword as it rested on her back, within arms reach.

"Let's just go" Lukas muttered, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Leading the way, Lukas led the other four down the path that Petra had built, and inched their way carefully towards the center of the ring of obsidian towers. A shrieking noise, a lot like the noise of an angered enderman, but louder and deeper, shook the world. The Ender dragon knew of their existence in its realm, and it was angry.

"Split up!" Lukas shouted, running towards one of the towers and pulling out his bow, customized with Infinity, Power III, Flame IV, and Unbreaking I. "Stick to the plan" he added, taking aim and releasing his bow, racing towards the next tower as the Ender Crystal exploded. Olivia and Axel took two different sides of the island. Olivia set up arrow dispensers, using redstone to connect them to a button so she could fire if the Ender Dragon swooped down near her. Axel ran around like a maniac randomly putting down TNT and placing levers on top of the explosive block.

Petra had a bow as well, however hers was only enchanted with Infinity and Punch II. Using Sand to build up high the redhead took aim and fired. Using an Unbreaking II iron shovel to break the sand and get back down to the ground, Petra ran for another pillar and began the process again.

While all of this was going on, Jesse was racing across the island. Taking care to avoid Axel's TNT traps, Jesse had downed both a Speed Potion and a Potion of Regeneration. He had also eaten one of the better variants of Golden Apples, to protect him incase the beast managed to hit him with fire, and the particles were swarming around him as he dodged the dragon. But he wasn't doing nothing while he ran, the brunette was fumbling through his inventory bag and pulling out his stack of glass bottles. This was the main reason he had agreed to be the distraction...that and Lukas had promised that if he did, then the blonde wouldn't use _it_.

Opening the first bottle, Jesse skidded to a stop, and held up the open bottle. As the dragon sucked in air for it's attack, Jesse took a quick look around the island. Petra was whooping as she dug her way down her sand tower, and Olivia was crouched near her contraption, hand at the ready. Axel was still placing TNT everywhere, though now he was making a shape out of it, a creeper perhaps. Or a pig gone wrong. And Lukas...

Jesse's dark green eyes narrowed. Lukas was no where to be found, and considering what Jesse knew the man had in his inventory, that was a dangerous thing. Jumping out of the way at the last moment, Jesse corked the bottle of Dragon's Breath, and grabbed another. As he opened the bottle however, holding it to the sky while the dragon shot out another attack, the world seemed to ripple, and all at once the remaining Ender Crystal's shattered. At the exact moment that the Dragon's Breath entered Jesse's bottle, the dragon flashed blood red about ten times, before letting out one last agonized roar, and poofing out of existence.

As the experience orbs rained down from the sky, Jesse corked his bottle, shoved it in his bag, and stalked over to Lukas. As he suspected, the blond was hastily putting something in his inventory, and Jesse didn't need to see the flashing lights to know what it was "WHAT DID YOU DO?" he practically roared, punching Lukas in the gut. Petra rushed forwards, unsheathing her sword, and Jesse took a step back. He had been there when Lukas and Petra had used the damn block they had found to summon enchanting books. He knew better than anyone that her sword was lethal. Enchanted with Fire Aspect V, Unbreaking V,Sharpness III, and Smite IV, Petra had named her sword 'Dragon's Bane' and could 1-hit kill just about any mob. She hadn't tried it on humans or villagers though, and Jesse didn't want to give her an excuse.

Lukas straightened, and glared at Jesse "We all agreed to use the Command Block Jesse, you know that" Jesse snarled "I never used that cursed block, everything I've done I've done the same way as real adventurers, by gathering the items myself. I agreed to use the block to find this place, since all of you were too cowardly to hunt down Endermen and Blazemen" Olivia crossed her arms "I seem to remember you being wary of fighting those mobs too Jesse" the brunette shot her a fierce glare, and the raven haired woman took a step backwards, shocked by the fury in his eyes. "But at least I was willing to try, you all just wanted to cheat your way through life." he turned his glare to Lukas "You promised not to use it in the battle" Jesse snarled "You said that if I would distract the beast while you all did your own things, then you wouldn't use it!" Lukas returned the glare and snapped "It was about to get you, you were just standing there like an idiot" Jesse chuckled darkly and shook his head "We both know the amount of time it would take to set up whatever command you did would take a lot longer than the time it took me to collect TWO bottles of Dragon's Breath. You've been planning this since the beginning!" he turned a confused gaze to Axel, Olivia, and Petra "Why are you three not upset about this, you were there when he promised not to-" he cut himself off with a sharp intake of air. "You planned this" he whispered softly.

"Jesse" Petra said calmly "You have to know this was our only way of completing what we told the world we would do, this was the only way to ensure we would become heroes" Jesse stared at the warrior in shock, his mouth falling open slightly "You all went behind my back, just so history would remember you as something you're not?"

"They'll remember you as a hero as well Jesse" Lukas said, his voice laced with a strange tone "Just forget that this ever happened, and tell the world we did it with our own hands, and this will all be in the past. We will all be heroes, together. Just like we wanted" Jesse glared at him "When we first banded together, without that damn block, we wanted to be adventurers. Then you found that...that thing and got it in your head, and theirs too that we could use it to be famous" he snapped.

Jesse was so blinded by the particles still flying around him as he spoke, he didn't see the look Lukas was giving to Petra "Well no more. I'm not playing along any longer. New rules Lukas, you give me the block, and I'll stay quiet. Or, you can keep it, and I'll tell the whole world" his green gaze narrowed as he hissed "make your choice" Lukas looked at him with a blank expression, and then said "You're right Jesse" Petra's head whipped around and she gaped at Lukas "WHAT?" she practically shrieked. She would have said more, but Lukas silenced her by raising his hand "I'll give you the block..." then he nodded at Petra's sword with his head "But you're never leaving the End again."

Before Jesse could say anything, do anything, or even blink, Petra gave him a pained look...before lashing out with her sword, and slicing it neatly across his throat. The brown haired man flashed red, and fell to the ground. His body caught on fire for a few seconds, causing him to flash red as it lashed out at his body, then the Golden Apples took effect and though the fire continued to blaze brightly, it no longer caused him pain. But the blood dripping down his neck was definitely causing pain, and the man's body flashed red multiple times while the four watched. Lukas's face was emotionless, revealing nothing, Petra refused to look at the cut she had inflicted, and Olivia was covering her hands with her eyes. Axel looked quite like he wanted to hug the dark skinned woman, but he refrained, settling for rubbing his hand on the back of his neck while he looked down at the body of his friend. "Let's go guys" Lukas said softly "There's...there's nothing left for us here." Reaching into his inventory bag, he took out the command block and pressed it into Jesse's bag "I wasn't lying, Jesse was right. We've come to depend on this thing. But now that we are now heroes, we don't need it anymore." Petra turned to look at him, confusion in her gaze "Then why didn't you just give it to him? There was no need for...for this" she waved her hand at the still form of Jesse. Lukas turned to look at her sadly "I couldn't risk him telling everyone about it...now the Command Block will be emptied from his inventory when he dies, and by nightfall it will be gone for good" Petra nodded slowly "I guess...I guess you're right. But we can't tell anyone about him, they might try retrieve his body, and then the Command Block would go into their hands, and they might give it to the wrong person and-" she cut herself off, shaking her head. "Let's just get out of here before he..." Olivia began, trailing off as she found herself unable to say the words.

One by one the Order of the Stone jumped through the bedrock portal, until only Lukas was left. Taking a deep breath, Lukas walked over to Jesse's still form, and crouched down. "I really am sorry" he whispered to the man who was still flashing red, though a lot slower than just a few seconds before "But I didn't have another choice" sighing, Lukas sat there for a few more moments, before he said "I'll come back in a week, once your inventory has despawned. I'll see to it that you get a proper memorial. And if your body is still here, I'll make you the biggest, most beautiful grave. I promise Jesse. And this time, I'll keep my promise. "

Rising to his feet, Lukas ran a hand through his hair and then whispered softly "Goodbye Jesse" before turning around and lifting himself up to the bedrock blocks surrounding the bedrock. Just before he jumped through, he added, in a voice so quiet that not even an elephant could have heard "Why must I keep losing my friends? First Maya, Gill, Aiden, and the others, and now Jesse?" sighing Lukas made an oath to himself "no more...I will not lose any other friends. If that means I just can't make friends, well then...so be it. But I will not lose anyone else" Jumping through the portal, the End once again became silent. No noise other than the teleporting of Endermen.

And then, a groan echoed throughout the world, and the brown haired man that the Endermen had begun to investigate sat up. As the black monsters teleported away from the apparently alive man, Jesse muttered "Potion of Regeneration, I shall never complain about you again" coughing, Jesse raised his hand, and then pulled it away at the feeling of wetness. Peering at it through blurry eyes, Jesse saw the red now staining his hand. Sighing, and then wincing at the pain that caused, Jesse fumbled around in his bag for a few seconds, before pulling out a pale pink/purple potion. Shuddering as he downed it, Jesse muttered "Nothing like the taste of nether wart and glistering melons to make one feel better" raising a hand to his throat, Jesse could feel the line that had apparently scarred thanks to the health potion. "A constant reminder" he whispered sadly "But then, how could I ever forget that"

Jesse wasn't sure how long he sat there, with there being no way to tell time in the End, but finally he got to his feet "So my so-called friends think I'm dead" he muttered, a dark look entering his green eyes "I can use that to my advantage. They will regret betraying me like that, but not yet...I need time to heal, and to come up with the perfect plan" Opening his inventory bag, Jesse nearly fell into the Void. "Well what do you know" he whispered, pulling out the Command Block "I think this will be able to help out quite wonderfully"


	2. ...A New Story Begins

_Nothing built can last forever, and every legend, no matter how great, fades with time...  
_

_When one story ends, another begins_

A raven haired teen was wielding a wooden sword and hacking away at an armor stand. Nearby, a young woman, maybe thirteen or fourteen, was messing around with some redstone and a daylight sensor. "Hey Ivor" the girl said, turning her head slightly revealing soft reddish brown eyes half hidden by her bangs. "Hmmm?" the male said, pausing with his sword hand partially raised as he turned to look at her with curious midnight blue eyes. A sly smile worked its way onto the woman's face as she said "Would you rather fight a hundred chicken sized zombies, or ten zombie sized chickens?"

Finishing swinging his sword, Ivor tilted his head to think. While he was silent, the female added "Just to be clear, your only weapon would be a wooden sword, and you'd only have a leather chestplate."

"The giant chickens" Ivor said finally "not because it would be easy or anything, but because they would be an absolute horror" the girl grinned as she said "Imagine their giant feet!" Ivor smiled at her "Like I said, a horror" The two chuckled for a little bit, before the girl let out a contented sigh and her tone turned more serious "I just finished getting the daylight sensor hooked up" Ivor hummed in response, going back to neatly slicing at the armor stand. "I mean, I didn't want to leave Reuben with just nothing while we're at the Building Competition" Ivor started, and nearly dropped his sword as he turned to look at his friend "What are you talking about Ellegaard? Reuben's coming with us" as he said he name Reuben, Ivor looked over at the tiny lamb that was headbutting the armor stand. At the sound of his name though, the small black and white sheep let out a bleat and trotted over to stand next to Ivor, his tail wagging happily. Ellegaard gave Ivor a skeptical look "really?" she asked, doubt flickering through her amber eyes. "What kind of question is that?" Ivor asked, putting his sword into his inventory pack so he could lean down and pet Reuben's soft fur. "Of course he is"

Ellegaard sighed "Okay, look. I'm not saying he _shouldn't_ come, but..." she rubbed the back of her head "don't you think it's a little weird you take him with you everywhere you go?" Reuben gave her an offended look, and turned his back on her, flicking his tail as he trotted away from her. "He kind of makes us look like...amateurs" Ellegaard finished, rather weakly, her heart no longer in the argument. Ivor turned his head to track Reuben, as he said in defense "He's my wingman, everybody wants to talk to the guy with the sheep" Ellegaard shook her head "You mean talk _about_ the guy with the sheep. Like...look at that weird guy with the sheep, how weird." She sighed, and pinched the space between her eyes. The treehouse was silent for a few moments, before she finally said "Look, forget I said anything. I didn't mean it, I'm glad he's coming" dropping her hands, Ellegaard walked over to the window and rested her left hand on the sill "I just...don't want to give people another reason to call us losers"

"We're not losers Ellie" Ivor said, straightening and brushing off his jeans and midnight blue shirt as he walked over to her. "Yes we are!" Ellegaard insisted, pushing his hand away when he tried to rest it on her shoulder. She turned around to face Ivor as she added "we lost all the time!" Ivor raised his hands defensively and said "O-Okay, okay! That might be true" he lifted a hand to brush it through his raven colored hair. "I can't even remember the last time we won anything" Ellegaard said sadly, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself. Ivor smiled slightly and said cheerfully "Well if that's the case...then that just means we win at being losers"

Even usually calm and serious Ellegaard couldn't help but crack a smile at that "thanks Ivor" she said. She had her mouth open to say more, but a hissing sound cut her off. Freezing, the two teens slid their gaze towards the trapdoor. The wooden block kept their ladder covered so that nobody could come in without opening it, and so Reuben wouldn't fall out of the structure. "oh no" Ellegaard whispered, backing up slightly. Before the two could grab a weapon, or even do anything more, the trapdoor burst open and the head of a creeper pushed through. Ellegaard shrieked and Ivor stumbled backwards, tripping over the armor stand. Reuben however, ran forwards, headbutting the creeper, the points of his small horns stabbing the monster right in its...green hoodie. "OW!" an all-too familiar voice shouted. Hands reached up, practically tearing the head off, and wrapping around the angrily bleating sheep. "What was that for?" the male, around 15 or 16, bald with a black mask wrapped around his forest green eyes, yelped, pushing Reuben away and rubbing at his chest "I thought we were-" "MAGNUS!" Ellegaard practically shrieked, stomping over the the male and hauling him the rest of the way into the treehouse by his ear, causing him to yelp, and rub at his ear. "Great" he muttered once she let go "Now I'm going to smell like redstone at Endercon"

Ivor had placed a hand over his heart, and was taking deep breaths. Once he calmed down, he smiled weakly at Magnus and muttered "Not too shabby, we thought you were a real Creeper" Magnus beamed at him "The mask is pretty cool right? The dude who sold it to me said it was made from genuine Creeper skin" Ellegaard gagged before quickly changing the subject. "Did you bring the fireworks?" Magnus scoffed "Of course I did" he said. Reaching into his mottled green bag he added "I also got something for the little guy" Magnus pulled out a pitch black and ender-purple costume, designed like the ender-dragon. It was clearly meant for a cat or a dog, but with some tweaking it would probably easily fit the tiny lamb. "You brought him a disguise?" Ellegaard asked skeptically. Magnus nodded happily as he began to buckle it onto Reuben "We're going to a convention Ellie" he said " _Someone's_ got to wear a costume"

Once the costume was on, Reuben bleated happily and lifted his head highly, trotting around the small building "He looks great" Ivor said with a small smile. Magnus nodded "It only took me a million hours to make, not to mention pretty much all of my wool and dye" Ellegaard smiled, then turned to Ivor "Hey grab your gear, we'll meet you downstairs" Ivor nodded, and the two slid outside.

* * *

After grabbing everything he thought he might need, shears, flint and steel, and of course Reuben, Ivor headed outside and set the wriggling black and white lamb down. "Easy Reuben" he said with a laugh, patting the head of the dragon costume which Magnus had fitted with holes for Reuben's horns. "That's everything" Ivor said, nodding to Magnus and Ellegaard. Magnus grinned "Let's roll!" he said cheerfully. Ellegaard rolled her eyes and crossed her arms "Yeah, roll"

While they walked through the woods, heading towards Beacon Town, Magnus spoke up "So, I heard this pretty juicy rumor about the building competition this year, but you guys have got to promise not to say anything" Ellegaard arched a brow, but she nodded "Alright" but Magnus just kept talking as though she hadn't said anything "Also, it comes in two parts, each more exciting than the last" Ivor rolled his eyes "Spit it out Magnus"

Magnus beamed at his two friends and said "Part one: the special guest at Endercon this year is none other that Petra the Warrior her-freaking self" Ivor stared at Magnus in shock "Really?" he asked, eyes wide. Magnus nodded, and Ellegaard pressed him "What's part two?" Magnus's smile widened "Part Two: According to my sources, the winner of the building competition gets to meet her!" Ellegaard gasped, and Ivor grinned at her while Magnus continued "I mean, it doesn't mean anything if we lose, but if we win...oh man, this would make up for all the losing!"

Ivor let out a soft humm "I'd love to meet Petra" Ellegaard nodded "Same here, she's amazing! I mean, not as great as Olivia, but still amazing" Magnus looked down at Reuben and chuckled slightly "Little guy better be careful, last time Petra saw a dragon, it didn't go over to well"

While they were talking, they had entered the more populated part of the woods. Narrowing her eyes, Ellegaard studied several of the banners that were beginning to appear and said slowly "Sooo...does this source of yours make banners for a living?" Magnus blinked, and then looked more closely at their surroundings. Ivor looked between the banners for a few seconds, before arching a brown and turning to Magnus with his arms crossed. Magnus sighed, and hung his head "Yeah um...my 'source' doesn't exist" he looked up at Ellegaard and Ivor sheepishly "You guys are my only friends" Ivor smiled, then shook his head "Guys, let's stay focused. We have a competition to win!" as they continued to walk towards town, Ellegaard shook her head sadly "We never win Ivor" she said, repeating her words from earlier "And this year we've got Reuben with us...we've basically got no chance" Ivor ran ahead of them slightly, and held out his arms, causing the two to stop and look at him curiously "We're going to win this year. Because..." he faltered, trying to think up something to say. His friends were quiet, letting him think, and his eyes lit up as he said "Because up until now we've hated losing. But today, we're going to learn to love winning" he blinked, and dropped his hands down to his side, muttering "That sounded way better in my head" Magnus beamed at him "Nah, nah, I'm with that!" The two boys turned to Ellegaard who shook her head, muttering something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "boys" but she looked up and gave the two a thumbs up.

The three continued to walk towards town, before Ivor stopped them again, this time just before the clearing that the path to Beacon Town started on. "Hold up a second" Ivor said. He had that expression on his face, the one he got whenever he had a plan forming. "We're thinking about this all wrong" he said slowly "The point of the building competition isn't just to build something" Ellegaard tilted her head "Oh?" Ivor nodded "It's about doing something to get noticed. Remember? Last years winners won by building that giant redstone mob spawner that killed Endermen" Magnus nodded eagerly "That thing was way cooler than our automatic smelting system" Ellegaard nodded, though more slowly than Magnus "I think I see where you're going with this Ivor" Ivor grinned at her "We don't just build something functional" he said, eyes twinkling "We build something fun" Ellegaard shifted, and smiled as Ivor said "We build the fireworks machine just like we planned, then we build something cool on top of it!"

"You just might be onto something Ivor" Ellegaard said thoughtfully. Magnus nodded and said "If you want to get a reaction out of the judges, then you build something scary. So let's make a Creeper" Ellegaard shook her head "Wouldn't an enderman be better? I'm more scared of Endermen than Creepers" Magnus nodded "They do both have their moments" Ellegaard frowned slightly "Then again, you scared the heck out of us with that Creeper mask" Ivor cut in "I have a better idea" he said, a huge grin on his face "Let's build a blaze" Ellegaard and Magnus shared a look, shuddered in unison, then beamed at Ivor "Perfect!" Magnus said, though Ellegaard had her own thoughtful face on "Do we have everything we need?" Ivor peered into his inventory bag, and Ellegaard and Magnus did the same. "It wouldn't hurt to grab some more gear" Ivor said with a shrug. The other two nodded, and the three did their signature move, a three-way high-five, but down low so that Reuben could put his hoof in as well. But instead of pulling away immediately, Ivor said "Let's add something to this, after all, we're cannot lose!" The other two nodded, and Ivor said "Alright...On three...Dare to prepare? no, no...Preparing is daring? Nope that's the same thing...gha just...um...Team on three"

He counted to three, and he and Ellegaard pulled away, shouting "TEAM!" while Reuben bleated. Although Magnus seemed a tad confused, and when he pulled his arm away he shouted "DARE!" Grinning at eachother, the three split up to gather their supplies. They were going to make one heck of a build.


	3. Building Competition

As the three humans and one lamb approached the Building Competition, Magnus was grinning from ear to ear. "We know what we're building" he said happily "We've got everything we need, we are so ready for this" Ivor smiled, and reached a hand down to rub Reuben's head as Ellegaard added "This year it's going to be different. I'm not just ready to build, I'm ready to win" Just then, a woman wearing a pair of silver goggles, most likely to imitate Lukas's armor, walked by alet out a sharp laugh "Nice sheep, losers" the four halted, and Ivor wilted. Magnus glared daggers at the woman, who had already walked away, and Ellegaard lowered her head, clenching her hands into fists.

After a few moments, Ivor took a deep breath, and then continued forwards, holding his head high, and blinking furiously to avoid letting spill the tears that threatened to stream down his face. Reaching the line that led to the front gate, Magnus let out a groan "Oh great, it's Harper and the Architects...the rivalry continues" Ivor managed to regain enough sight to see the four people standing at the gate. A black haired teenage woman was talking to the lady at the front booth, behind her stood a teen with curly black hair wearing a green shirt, a storm gray haired male wearing a dark purple shirt, and a pale blue haired female wearing a black and red dress. Each of them had a symbol on the back of their shirt, two crossing pickaxes, with a sword in between. "They have matching logos and everything" Ellegaard muttered under her breath Mangus nodded "So cool..." he groaned.

The teen in the purple shirt turned upon hearing their voices, and a wicked grin split his face. "Well, well, well" he said, causing the other male and the red and black wearing female, to turn to see who he was talking to. "If it isn't the Order of the Losers" the girl scoffed and put in "The fail squad's here" meanwhile, the green wearing male turned towards the girl who was finishing talking to the lady at the front desk, and called "Hey Harper, come check out these wanna-be heroes"

Harper glanced over, and rolled her eyes "Leave them alone Hadrien, we've got work to do" she said, before walking into the main part of the competition. The other girl and the green wearing boy followed her, but Hadrien stayed for a few seconds to glare at them, before he too turned and followed Harper. Ivor and his friends stood still for a few moments, watching them, before Ivor took a deep breath, and led them up to the woman Harper had just been talking to. The woman looked up at them and smiled sweetly "Name please" she said. Magnus grinned, and winked at the lady "Magnus, and how do you do"

The woman chuckled, though shook her head "No no, your team name" Magnus blinked and repeated weakly "Team name?" Ellegaard groaned "we are so not ready for this" Ivor narrowed his eyes in thought for a few minutes, before looking up at the woman confidently. "We're the Order of the Lamb" Ellegaard blinked...then blinked again. Then she face-palmed and muttered "really Ivor?" Magnus however seemed good with the name "To tie us to Reuben" he said with a grin "I like it" Ellegaard rolled her eyes "Of course you do" Magnus frowned at her "What's that supposed to mean" before the teen could respond however, the lady smiled and said "Alright, Order of the Lamb, you're in Booth Five"

Ivor nodded, and led Magnus, Ellegaard, and Reuben over to their booth. Realizing that the Architects were in the next booth over, the newly dubbed Order of the Lamb paused to watch, to try and see what they were building. "Is that a Beacon?" Magnus muttered under his breath, staring at the block in Harper's hand. "Their building a freaking beacon?" his voice rose slightly towards the end. Ellegaard studied the blocks Hadrien was pulling out of a chest and added "Look, that's stained glass. They aren't just building a beacon, they're making a rainbow beacon." as she finished, her shoulders sagged slightly. "we're so going to lose" Ivor rested a hand on his friend's shoulder "We're not going to lose Ellie, remember, have faith"

Ellegaard nodded, but didn't look like she quite believed him. A few more seconds passed before she said anything, and even then it was just "we should probably stop staring at them" however, they were a tad too late as the green shirted male nudged Hadrien, who looked up from his chest and grinned like a shark. "The failures are back" the black haired teen said, causing the blue haired female to turn towards Booth Five. She grinned, and high-fived her green wearing friend "Good one Otto" Ellegaard glared at the two "We were just looking!" she snapped, her hands clenching into fists again. Hadrien smiled at her, and walked closer to the fence that separated the two booths. "There will be plenty of time for you to look once it wins and gets shown at Endercon." he all but purred. Magnus glared at him, and took a step forwards, putting his body between Ellegaard's and Hadrien's. "You're being unpleasant" he growled. Hadrien ignored the teen, and shifted his golden gaze town towards Reuben, who was bleating angrily. "Well, maybe not all of you" he said with a smirk "Endercon doesn't allow outside food or drink" Reuben started at Hadrien's words, and flinched away from him, ducking behind Ivor,

If looks could kill, Hadrien would have imploded right then and there. "Reuben. Is not. Food" Ivor growled, his eyes narrow as he glared out at the other teen. Hadrien gave him that shark grin again as he said "Could have fooled me sport, he looks delicious" the way he said 'sport' made Ivor want to punch him, but he managed to refrain himself. Acts of violence were one of the fastest ways to get kicked out of the Building Competition. Thankfully, Magnus spoke up before he could "You'll have to eat me first" The pure absurdity of the statement caused Ivor to calm down, and he reached behind him to rest a hand on Reuben's horns.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that" Ellegaard said, giving Magnus an odd look. "Hadrien!" Harper snapped, causing the purple wearing teen to jump slightly "Quit goofing around, we've got work to do!" Hadrien snarled under his breath and grumbled "You're lucky I'm busy" before he turned around and walked over to Harper. Ivor stood still, watching him, and Ellegaard opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by a male voice. "Ivor, Ellegaard, Magnus, good to see you all again" Ivor turned, and smiled at the dark skinned teen with shaggy black hair "Gabriel!" he said with a smile, relieved to have the attention taken off of him. "You ready for the competition to start?" Gabriel asked, lifting his right arm up and resting the diamond pickaxe he held on the same shoulder. Magnus shrugged "Who knows, but we're optimistic, right guys?" Ivor nodded, whereas Ellegaard simply looked surprised that the TNT-loving teen knew a word as long as optimistic.

"Gabriel" Harper's voice drifted over as she walked closer to the person in question. "I forgot to thank you for that Nether Star, you got the payment right?" Gabriel nodded and smiled "I did, thank you. Those diamonds must have been hard to come by" Harper chuckled, and used a hand to brush a strand of hair out of her face "That's an understatement, we were strip-mining for hours" She probably would have said more, but Magnus cut her off "Whoa, whoa, WHOA. Gabe, you helped these jerks?" Harper glared at Magnus, and opened her mouth to snap something back at him, but Gabriel cut her off "For the right price, I'll help anyone" he said. Turning to walk away, he called over his shoulder "If you need anything, you know where to find me" Ellegaard frowned, and called after him "But none of us know where to find you"

Gabriel turned his head enough to smile at her and wink "Exactly" he said, before walking out of hearing range. Harper took a deep breath, and then turned to Ivor. "Look, if you're cool with Gabriel, then you're cool with us. No hard feelings" she smiled sweetly "So why don't we just make this about how amazing our builds are hmmm?" Ivor tilted his head and brushed away some of the bang that had fallen into his face. He studied Harper for a bit, before nodding slowly "I'm cool if you're cool, but you need to teach your friends some manners" he turned a pointed glare at Hadrien's back. Harper sighed as she followed his gaze "Believe me I know. Just...don't let him bother you alright? He's probably just trying to get under your skin."

Before any more words could be exchanged, a woman cleared her throat, and all eyes turned to the middle of the clearing, where the lady from the front desk was standing on a wooden platform. "Ladies and Gentlemen" she said loudly "Welcome to the sixteenth annual Endercon Building Competition!" she was greeted by many cheers, and she had to wave her hands for a few seconds to get silence. "Remember, the winners of this years competition will have their builds featured tonight, Opening Night, of Endercon! They will also meet, in person, Petra the Warrior!"

The Order of the Lamb let out cheers, but they were cut off by chanting. Turning their heads, they saw Harper, Otto, Hadrien and the blue haired teen clasping hands in a circle, and then throwing their hands upwards as they shouted "Architects! Architects!"

Ellegaard was the first to break the silence "They even have a cool team hand-shake" she groaned. "We are so under-prepared" Ivor smiled at her "Who needs a hand-shake? We've got our own thing" holding his hand into the air, Magnus immediately clapped his hand against Ivor's. Ellegaard smiled, and lifted her own hand into the high-five. Lowering their hands in sync, the Order of the Lamb held their hands low enough for Reuben to lift a hoof and rest it in the circle of hands as well. "We can do this" Ivor whispered "We can win"

"Building" the woman said

"Starts" the three friends tensed slightly, preparing to jump up

"NOW" the three humans and one lamb jumped upwards with a whoop.

* * *

It took them only ten minutes to put down the frame, and once they were done with the basic build, Ivor could hear the blue haired girl call up "Oh no, a Fire-works dispenser. I'm so scared" she began cackling, until Harper called "Mevia, I want that redstone down today" and she had to resume building.

"Magnus" Ivor said, turning to his green wearing friend, "Toss me the orange flowers you grabbed" Magnus nodded, and threw the tulips up at Ivor. Ivor snagged them before they fell back down, and turned to the crafting table they had placed both for use, and because they were accidentally one plank short, due to forgetting to grab a crafting table earlier. Quickly turning the flowers into dye, Ivor began combining them with the wool he had sheared earlier. Though some he died yellow and red, and two pieces he died black.

* * *

It took a lot longer to craft the Blaze-man. Though that was probably because they had to make, and then destroy, scaffolding so that the wool could look like it was spiraling around the entire dispenser. They had gotten roughly five stacks of wool, and so instead of making a 2D image like they had planned, the Order of the Lamb ended up making a 3D image, even going so far as to replace some of the wood with wool so that the whole thing was a giant Blaze-man.

"And now, the moment of truth" Ivor muttered, carefully parkoring himself up to the top. Waiting for Magnus and Ellegaard to join him. Reuben was down below, unable to climb the build for risk of falling off. Ivor nodded to Ellegaard, who was nearest the lever. Ellegaard muttered "Here goes nothing" and pulled the switch.

Instantly orange, red, and yellow fireworks burst out of the top, spiraling into the air like fire.

"Dude, that looks way epic!" Magnus crowed "We'll win for sure"

Attention drawn by the sound of cheering, Ivor looked down at the crowd that was gathering around their build "Guys" he hissed "people are looking at us"

"Good build you guys!" Called up the woman who had insulted them earlier. Hadrien however, was staring around him in shock "No way" he growled "It's just a bunch of dyed wool!" looking around, Ivor had just enough time to widen his eyes, before Hadrien whipped around and punched a piece of glass...a piece of glass that was holding lava in it's container. Lava, that spilled out quickly, and set fire...to a certain black and white sheep.

"REUBEN!" Ivor shouted, jumping his way down the blaze-man in time to see Reuben run away into the woods bleating with fear. "Reuben come back"

"It was Hadrien" Magnus snarled, fingers twitching towards his pocket even though Ivor knew he had nothing weapons-related in it. "The lava's getting closer" Ellegaard said, stepping away from it in fear "It's going to burn our fireworks dispenser!" Ivor shook his head, already running into the woods "Leave it, we've got to save Reuben" Magnus ran after him with no hesitation, but Ellegaard stared longingly at their build. After a few seconds though, she too ran after Ivor "We've got your back Ivor"


	4. Lost, Found, and Lost Again

The three friends made it roughly five steps into the woods before they found themselves in unfamiliar territory. The woods they lived in were on the other side of the EnderCon Build-Off area, these were the woods that led to Beacon Town.

"I don't see him" Ivor said, the sun was starting to go down, and the trail of smoke that they had been following had vanished into the shadows. Ellegaard lifted her head to the skies, where the moon was just beginning to rise, before whispering "It's night, we need to find him, and fast."

Magnus frowned, and looked around, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a spare torch to light up the area they were standing in. "But these woods are huge, the little guy could have gone anywhere"

Ivor nodded briskly "Then we split up. Cover more ground"

Ellegaard nodded "At midnight, we can meet up at Endercon, the lights of Beacontown can serve as a reference point, so if you get lost, just head in whatever direction seems brightest." Magnus nodded as well, and began walking off towards the hills, taking his torch with him. Ellegaard took out a spare Redstone Torch, and though it wasn't much it at least cast some light onto the ground "Do you have a way to make light? It will be easier to find him if you can see after all"

Ivor shook his head "Reuben was on fire, if I'm holding a torch I might not see the embers." Ellegaard smiled slightly as she said "Alright, be safe Ivor, I'll see you at Endercon" Ivor nodded, and watched the brown haired girl walk away.

Taking a deep breath, Ivor turned and began to walk through the woods. "Reuben?" he called into the silence "Reuben are you there?" maneuvering around a clump of Moss Stone he called out "Reuben, bleat if you can hear me!"

Walking near a stream, Ivor could see smoke rising up on the other side of a giant mushroom, and he raced over. "Reu-" he began, cutting himself off when he realized it was just a tree. Crouching near the stream, Ivor splashed water up onto the tree until it was no longer at risk of burning down the rest of the forest, muttering to himself as he did so. "Reuben MUST have gone this way, which means I'm on the right track." Rising, Ivor dried his hands on his dark blue shirt, and continued along. Emerging into a small clearing where a herd of sheep were grazing, Ivor carefully walked into the herd, calling Reuben's name as he did so. Getting no answer, or possibly just not hearing an answer, Ivor growled and snapped "All sheep but Reuben SHUT UP!"

Being wild sheep and clearly not as smart as his own tamed lamb, the sheep did not listen to Ivor, but instead got louder. If that was even possible. Groaning, Ivor spotted a rustling patch of grass, and quickly ran over to it. Pushing the grass aside hopefully, but sighing as all that did was reveal an extremely frightened ocelot, who burst out of the grass and ran off into the woods.

Nearing a small hill, Ivor maneuvered his way down and called out "Reuben, it's getting really dark" Ivor was just starting to regret not taking a torch from Ellegaard, when a sharp smell filled his nose. The distinct smell of smoke. Racing towards it, Ivor skidded to a stop in front of a smoldering pile of black cloth. "Reuben" Ivor said slowly, pulling the shears out of his bag "Please tell me you aren't in there"

Upon recieving no response, Ivor shuddered and muttered "don't you dare be mutton" as he used the shears to cut open the costume. Sighing with relief, Ivor stomped on the empty costume, and tucked it away into his bag. It would be better to bring it with him than to leave it on the forest floor. Besides, Magnus had worked hard on it, maybe it could be salvaged?

Looking around, Ivor spotted a small cave with a light shining from it. Figuring light in a cave was much better than the openness of night, Ivor headed for it. Dropping into the cave using the dirt pathway, Ivor relaxed slightly now that there was warm torch-light spilling over him and illuminating his surroundings. Peering around, Ivor spotted a small entranceway to a deeper cave, but when he looked in it all he could see were some bats. Sighing, Ivor backed away, and continued through the tunnel, emerging into the night a few minutes later. He was now in a small field, with a mountain on the side he had come from.

Eyes catching on a quivering section of tall grass, Ivor crouched down and walked towards it, gently pushing the grass away to reveal...

"Reuben!" Ivor cried, his voice thick with relief "You're alright" the little lamb was quivering, and his eyes were wide as he stared up at Ivor, but other than that he didn't seem to be hurt. Reaching into the grass, Ivor picked up Reuben and held him for a few minutes. "Come on buddy, let's get to Beacon Town. We've got to hurry if we don't want to run into any-" a low groan cut him off, and Ivor stiffened, turning around to see two zombies lurching out of the cave. Ivor quickly set Reuben down and said "Reuben, run!" he wished he could carry the little guy, but last time he had run while holding Reuben, the black and white sheep's horns had practically shredded his shirt.

The two of them took off, Ivor hanging back to make sure Reuben was at his side. Running through grass and dodging around trees, they came to a stop in another small clearing, where there were some leaves that still had yet to despawn floating up in the air. "I think we're good" he said, turning to look in the direction they had just come from. However, Reuben bleated in terror, and when Ivor turned to look, there was a Creeper crawling towards them. Yelping, Ivor and Reuben took off to the side, so as not to meet the Zombies they had just left behind. Skidding behind a small hill, Ivor bent over slightly, his hands on his knees "I think we're clear" he said between gasps of air.

And of course, only a few seconds later, an arrow lodged itself into the mountain. Ivor jumped back with a cry of terror, turning to see the skeleton that had shot at him quickly drawing another arrow. Yelping, Ivor stumbled to his feet, and began running, shouting in pain as an arrow struck him in the back of his left arm, and his body flashed red. Reuben ran in front of him, helping him up while the skeleton reloaded, and the two kept running, only to find themselves trapped by a huge cliff. "NO!" Ivor shouted, slamming his fists into the rock wall "No, no no" pulling the arrow out as he turned around, Ivor found himself trapped between a wall of stone and a wall of mobs. Reaching into his inventory, Ivor pulled out his wooden sword, and gripped it in both hands, standing protectively between Reuben and the monsters.

Lashing out at a zombie that was starting to get too close, Ivor nodded in determination as the monster flashed red. Slashing his sword along it again, Ivor felt a tiny breath of relief come as the zombie vanished into a poof of smoke, and a piece of rotten flesh began to float on the ground. "Stay behind me Reuben" Ivor said "I won't lose you again" Reuben nodded, and puffed out his chest, trying to look brave.

Focusing on the zombies again, Ivor began to hack away at the monsters. He managed to kill two more Zombies, before his sword splintered in half and poofed out of existence. "NO!" Ivor shouted, backing towards the cliff "Stupid wooden sword" he added with a growl. A spider jumped down from above, causing Ivor to flinch, his leg brushing up against Reuben's spotted fur. Turning around, Ivor scooped up Reuben, holding him tightly "I'm so sorry" he whispered into Reuben's ear, setting him down he said "Listen to me Reuben, run. Run until you get to Beacon Town. Don't look back" Reuben took a step backwards, bleating with a mixture of anger and confusion. "I'll see you there Reuben, I promise. But you need to go, right now" Reuben bleated sadly, and then turned around, running as fast as his hooves could take him.

Turning around, Ivor saw that the monsters were nearly at him. Curling his hands into fists, Ivor waited for the first zombie to get within range before he began punching it, knocking it away slightly with each punch. It took about seven hits, but the zombie finally burst into a cloud of smoke. "Who's next!" Ivor shouted, the monsters having slowed slightly at the sight of a human punching one of their comrades to death, began lurching towards him with renewed energy. Taking another step backwards, Ivor felt his back brush up against the stone wall. Taking a deep breath, Ivor whispered softly "Reuben is safe, that's all that matters" not wanting to watch as monsters ripped him apart, Ivor closed his eyes, and waited for the pain to begin.

And waited...and...waited?

Squeezing an eye open, Ivor found himself staring at a most unusual sight. A male wearing a dark blue jacket with a diamond embroidered on the back was hacking away at the monsters...with an iron pickax. "Gabri-" Ivor began, only to be cut off as the dark-skinned male grabbed onto his arm and dragged Ivor through the woods, calling behind him"We need to get out of the open"

Ivor pulled his hand free, running alongside of his 'friend'. "We're in a forest" he snarled back "How is that in the open?" Gabriel huffed at that, before calling in return "Just keep running"

* * *

They had run for about four minutes, before Gabriel had led him underground. The tunnel was straight down, with ladders leading down it, and evenly spaced torches keeping monsters from spawning. Reaching the bottom, Ivor spotted a sign that read 'Fourteen levels above bedrock', and his eyes widened. They were on diamond level. "I want to show you something" Gabriel said slowly, like he wanted to trust Ivor, but wasn't sure he should.

Ivor tilted his head curiously "Oh? What is it?" Gabriel smiled at him, and reached into his inventory bag, which was slightly disheveled from their run. Pulling out a raven black object he said "Have you ever seen...a wither skeleton skull?" Ivor's eyes widened, and he reached a hand out to touch it, running a finger along the pitch black bone. "Fresh from the nether" Gabriel said proudly "you're the first one I've shown it to"

Straightening, Ivor watched as Gabriel carefully put the object away "That's insane Gabriel, you could have been killed!" Gabriel rolled his pale blue eyes with a slight chuckle "No need to worry so much Ivor, I can handle myself you know." nodding his head to indicate Ivor should follow, Gabriel began to walk through the cave. As he followed, Ivor asked "What are you going to do with it?" Gabriel gave him a half-smile "I'm meeting someone at Endercon, they're going to give me a half-stack of blaze rods and a diamond for it"

Ivor's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything, letting the other male continue "Sometimes it pays to be the resident go-getter"

The two walked in silence for a while, before Ivor spoke up. "The guy you're giving the skull to" he said slowly, like he was trying to figure out what he wanted to say "what's his deal?" Gabriel frowned, but answered "He's...a little strange, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure he's all that sane. But everybody's got their thing you know?" Ivor's eyes narrowed "And you never thought to ask him, hey what's with your whole totally-normal-not-weird-at-all skull thing?" Gabriel shrugged "As long as he's willing to pay" he said, like that settled the manner "I earned those blaze rods and diamond"

They walked in silence for another few minutes, each thinking their own thoughts about Gabriel's customer. "Wow" Ivor whispered finally. He didn't mean for Gabriel to overhear, but being in a cave, their words tended to echo around. "Wow what?" Gabriel asked, a note of suspicion in his voice. Ivor shrugged "In a single day, you went to the nether, found a nether fortress, killed enough wither skeletons to get that skull...I mean, I did make a pretty epic statue, but still." he looked at Gabriel, nothing but respect in his gaze "It's pretty sweet being you huh?" Gabriel rubbed the back of his head slightly nervously "You know..." he said slowly "you could come with me" he said it like he wasn't entirely sure of what he was saying, but Ivor didn't even register that. "You want me" he said, jaw practically falling off of his face "to come with you" Gabriel shrugged again "Consider it my charitable act of the day"

Ivor grinned "I'll consider it whatever you want me to consider it, 'long as I get to come" Gabriel halted, and when Ivor looked around he could see a chest, crafting table, and furnace sitting in a small niche in the wall. "You keep a crafting table down here?" Ivor asked curiously. Gabriel nodded "Comes in handy. Since that wooden sword of yours got busted-" "You're giving me a new one?" Ivor cut in hopefully. Gabriel chuckled, and gestured to the chest "Even better. You can make your own. One stick plus two cobble equals one stone sword"

Ivor walked up to the chest and opened it, searching through it's mismatched contents "Just grab what you need" Gabriel added. Ivor nodded, coming up with two cobble in one hand, and a stick in the other. "Hey, is all this stuff yours?" he asked, nodding with his head towards the now closed chest. Gabriel gave him a blank look "No" he said, deadpan "We're stealing from whoever was dumb enough to leave this down here. Of course it's mine!" Ivor's cheeks colored slightly as he faced the crafting table and he muttered "just checking" quickly placing the items in the slots needed to craft a sword, Ivor picked it up, a grin splitting his face. Gabriel smiled "Isn't it better when you make it yourself?" Ivor nodded, placing the sword in his bag.

Gabriel led him out of the cave, it didn't take much longer to reach the outside, which had part of a mineshaft connecting to it. The mineshaft was all lit up, which meant it had already been searched, so Ivor didn't think much of it. Emerging into the night sky in front of a large wooden bridge, Gabriel pointed to Beacon Town, where the lights of Endercon were illuminating the area for at least 50 blocks around. "Check it out" he said "Endercon's all lit up"

However, Ivor wasn't paying attention to the lights. His gaze was focused on a beam of light shooting high into the sky, and changing color every few seconds. "Aw man" he groaned "Harper and the Architects won again" Gabriel sighed "Sorry Ivor. But, you must admit. They did a very good job on their build" Ivor huffed, pushing a strand of hair out of his face "Yeah yeah...I just wanted this to be the year we finally beat them"

"You know..." Gabriel said as the two began to walk again. "Harper might seem a bit...arrogant, but she's come through for me in tricky situations. You might want to get to know her, just in case. She's good at building and redstone, that's for sure. Might be useful to have someone like that around, no matter what you think of them personally." Ivor frowned, but said, with great reluctance "You might be right." "I'm just saying" Gabriel said "If you run into her at Endercon, try talking to her" Ivor rolled his eyes "I don't need a lecture on the power of collaboration Gabriel" he said. Gabriel smiled "How about a lecture on the power of my fists? It's short, but deadly" Ivor chuckled.

They were about half-way across the bridge at this point, when Gabriel said "Remember what Endercon was like before it was cool?" Ivor nodded, then asked "Remember what we were like before we were cool?" Gabriel gave him an odd look "Some of us...will never be cool" he said, causing Ivor to roll his eyes "Ha ha" the pale skinned teen muttered sarcastically.

A sharp hissing cut through the silence, and the two teens froze, staring at the other end of the bridge, where three creepers were steadily making their way closer. Ivor turned around, only to find about twelve zombies lurching out of the cave and onto the other end of the bridge. "This...doesn't look good" Gabriel said, pulling out his pickaxe and gripping it tightly. "There's only one way off of this bridge" Gabriel said, determination filling his voice "Whatever we do, we do it together"

Ivor looked down at the water and said quickly "The only way off this bridge is down" Gabriel nodded, and put away his weapon, instead grabbing hold of Ivor, and jumping off of the bridge, right as the monsters met.

It only took a few seconds to fall, but it felt like hours before Gabriel dived smoothly into the blue river, and Ivor landed face-first, sinking slowly. Surfacing with a gasp, Ivor shouted "IT BURNS!" Gabriel smiled at him "Don't you know?" he said "You dive into the water, you don't land on top of it" Ivor blushed, but didn't say anything, instead he simply tread water. Gabriel shook his head "Pull yourself together" he grumbled "and follow me"


	5. Endercon!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This song, right here, this is Reverse!Jesse/Canon!Ivor's theme song.  
> LISTEN TO IT WITH CHAPTER ONE IN MIND!  
> https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=W599nooue4Y

As the two friends walked into the open gates of Beacon Town, Ivor began to scan the many stalls, searching for any sign of Reuben. "Let me know if you see Reuben" he told Gabriel, worry thick in his voice. Gabriel gave Ivor a reassuring pat on the back "Don't worry Ivor, he's got to be here somewhere" Ivor sighed "I hope you're right" he said, his voice much softer than it typically was.

They walked in silence through the crowded streets for a while, before Gabriel said "When we're making the deal, let me do the talking alright? I don't want anything to screw this up" Ivor shrugged, still subdued about not being able to find Reuben. "Whatever you say" he said, brushing some stray hairs off of his forehead. Gabriel nodded, then added "If you want to be really useful, try looking intimidating, fierce. Then my client will be less suspicious of you" Ivor tilted his head "Like this?" he crossed his arms and scowled in what he probably thought was a fierce manner, but really made him look like he had something stuck between his teeth. Gabriel blinked...and blinked again "Aaannd now I'm less scared of you, and more scared for you" he muttered, rubbing the area between his eyes. Ivor huffed, and let his arms swing by his sides.

"Ivor!" Ivor's head jerked up, his dark blue gaze searching the crowd until he found the source of the shout. Ellegaard and Magnus were running towards them, and as they got closer, Ellegaard caught sight of Gabriel, and her eyes widened "...and Gabriel?" she said slowly. Ivor nodded "We ran into each other while I was looking for Reuben" Magnus sighed before saying "You couldn't find him either huh?" Ellegaard rested a hand on Ivor's shoulder "I'm sorry, we looked everywhere but we couldn't find him"

Ivor sighed, and tilted his head back to look at the full moon, positioned directly above the town. Lowering his head, Ivor said "I found him, and for a while we were headed here together, but then we ran into a monster horde." he shook his head, gritting his teeth and narrowing his eyes "I...I told him to run, it was for his own good..." his hands, previously clenched, relaxed as he added in a murmur "I haven't seen him since"

Ellegaard's hand, still clasped on Ivor's shoulder, tightened "Don't worry, we will find him." Ivor nodded slowly, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Turning to Gabriel, Ellegaard asked "What were you doing in the woods?"Gabriel chuckled "Nothing" he said "Just drawn to the sound of Ivor's high pitched screams" Ivor nodded, though not until after he shot a glare at Gabriel "I would have been spider-bait if he hadn't shown up" he admitted with a shrug.

A round of cheering caught their attention, and the group turned to see a group of people surrounding the a fenced in area, where Mevia was standing, a lever next to him, and the recently activated beacon shooting a multi-colored beam of light into the sky. "I gotta admit" Magnus grumbled, glaring daggers at Mevia, who thankfully didn't see. "I'm pretty bummed that they won...again" Ellegaard nodded in agreement with the bald teen and said "I mean, there's no way we were going to let you chase after Reuben on your own but still..." she sighed "It's alright to be a little disappointed...right?"

Magnus, still glowering at Mevia muttered "Or a lot disappointing" Ivor chuckled "Don't worry you two, we'll beat them next year" Ellegaard frowned "I don't know Ivor" she said hesitantly.

"The spirit is willing" Magnus said, finally dragging his gaze away from the blue-haired teen "but the flesh is sad" Gabriel smiled widely and said "Hey, if at first you don't succeed...well then, succeed later than originally planned" glancing upwards, Gabriel turned to Ivor "Ivor, it's time to see about...you know" Ivor's eyes widened slightly, and he nodded quickly. "We'll see you later, alright?" he said to Magnus and Ellegaard. The female smiled and said "That's fine, we were going to poke around anyways." Magnus nodded eagerly, a grin splitting his face "I heard they've got a TNT booth this year!"

As they turned and walked away, Gabriel grabbed Ivor's midnight blue shirt and dragged him towards an alleyway "Hurry" he hissed "We're supposed to meet in the alley"

* * *

Ivor walked nervously through the alley. Gabriel was in front of him, leading the way through the dark and rather disturbing passageway. They reached the end, where the only sign of life was a chest underneath a fence that latched onto other fence pieces, which latched onto the walls on either side. Gabriel frowned, and turned around "That's odd" he said slowly "He said the dark, creepy alley close to the gates...maybe he's late"

Ivor frowned, and turned his head to look over his shoulder "Are you sure _this_ is the dark creepy alley he meant?"

Gabriel hummed thoughtfully "I was..." he said. Sighing, he said "Alright, new plan. You stay here in case this is the place he meant, and I'll scout around" as he began to walk away, Ivor could hear him mutter "strange...I've never gotten a meet-up spot wrong before" reaching the end of the alley, Gabriel turned and called back "If he does show, stall for me. I'll be back in a few minutes" Ivor nodded, and Gabriel vanished into the mist.

Turning towards the chest again, Ivor walked towards it, and crouched down to open it. He had just placed a hand on the lid, when someone cleared their throat behind him. Flinching, Ivor whirled around and straightened. A man emerged from the darkness, a man with shoulder-length caramel hair, dark forest green eyes, and a black cloak that covered a royal blue robe with a golden belt. "And just who are you?" he asked, green gaze searching Ivor from head to toe.

Ivor tried to answer, but found himself unable to, just staring at the man as a chill of terror shivered down his back. When he didn't answer, the man scowled "I'm meeting with a young man named Gabriel, tell me where he is or-"

"I'm with Gabriel" Ivor blurted, causing the man to arch a brow "Oh?" he said, and Ivor nodded "He's not here, but he'll be back soon!" The man growled, raising a hand to push it through his hair. "I suppose I have waited this long, a few minutes more will not hurt. But you had better not be lying" he shifted his cloak to reveal a glinting iron sword.

"Jesse" Gabriel's voice sounded from the darkness, as the black haired teen emerged from the shadows, nodding at the cloaked man. "About time" the man, Jesse, growled. "Your 'friend' here is not the most informative company." Gabriel shot Ivor a hard look, before turning his gaze back to Jesse and saying "I'm sorry. I left Ivor here while I went looking for you." Changing the subject he added "I've got what you asked for" Ivor nodded quickly and put in "If you've got what you promised us" causing Gabriel to groan, and rub the space between his eyes. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

Jesse's eyes narrowed further "You never said anything about an 'us' before, and I don't like to be surprised" he eyed Ivor warily "If these are the sorts of people you associate with, perhaps we should call the whole thing off" Gabriel shook his head quickly "My friend is fine, right Ivor" he added the last part with a glare at Ivor. "There's no problem here" Gabriel continued, turning back to Jesse "no need to be hasty. This is just a misunderstanding"

Ivor shrugged, but didn't say anything. Jesse hummed "Proceed then"

Gabriel nodded, reaching into his pack and pulling out the Wither Skull once again. Handing it over to Jesse, who accepted it eagerly, turning it so as to inspect it. "I'll take my pay now" Gabriel said.

Jesse nodded, and pointed to the chest underneath the fence-posts "Take it, you've earned it"

Gabriel and Ivor both turned to the chest, but it was Gabriel that crouched down, pulled it out from under the fence, and pushed it open.

He and Ivor both proceeded to stare in stunned silence for about half a minute. "Umm...those aren't diamonds, or blaze rods" he said, as Gabriel pulled out the contents "No, it's lapis and a half-stack of sticks!" shoving the items back in the chest, Gabriel slammed the lid down and got to his feet, absolutely livid. Pulling out his iron pick, Gabriel whirled around to face...an empty alley. Gabriel let out a growl of annoyance "Of all the underhanded tricks to pull..." he shook his head and ran out of the alley, his pale blue gaze already scanning the crowd for his target "I can't believe I let that guy get one over on me" Gabriel added with a growl.

"Then let's hunt him down" Ivor said, standing next to his friend, his own dark blue searching the mass of people. Gabriel nodded in determination. "I'm either getting that diamond, or I'm getting my skull back" he said. Ivor nodded, and clenched his hands into fists "Or we make him pay, right?" Gabriel didn't answer, instead he began to lead the way into the crowd. "Split up" Gabriel said "Find him" Ivor nodded, and turned around, taking off in the direction of the Keynote building.

As he got closer, a huge group of people suddenly flocked to a side gate, where a redhead wearing golden armor with diamond blue highlights was walking into Endercon. "There she is!" someone shouted "Petra! Petra!" the crowd seemed to chant. People were shoving over eachother to try and get close, but before they could, a huge blond male with a blindingly bright blue shirt blocked them. "Step aside please" the blond said, causing Ivor to sigh and turn away while the people begged to get in. Walking around for a few more minutes, he spotted Harper, and remembering Gabriel's words from earlier, he made his way towards the long haired girl. "Hey" he said in greeting, causing Harper to look up at him. The brown-wearing woman smiled "Hey" she said in return, a small smile on her face, before she looked down at the ground "I'm sorry you guys didn't win this year. Your build was pretty amazing, you know...before it burned down."

Ivor crossed his arms "You know, that stunt your friend pulled really hurt my lamb." Harper sighed "Yeah, I had nothing to do with that"

"He's still missing" Harper winced at that, and said, her voice sincere "I'm sorry. I hope you find him."

The two stood in awkward silence, before Ivor said "Hey, have you seen a creepy guy with long hair and a black cloak wandering around here?" Harper frowned, and tilted her head back, thinking. Finally she shook her head "I haven't, why?" Ivor's fingers tapped on his pant leg "He kinda scammed Gabriel out of a diamond and some blaze rods earlier." Harper's eyes widened in shock "Really? I thought everyone knew you don't mess with Gabriel. Not if you know what's good for you." She smiled at Ivor "I'll keep a look out for him...and your pet sheep"

Ivor's gaze met hers "Really?" and Harper nodded. "I'm really sorry about Hadrien, I want to make it up to you. Looking for your lamb is the least I can do"

"Thank you" Ivor said, and Harper nodded "Of course" Ivor smiled at her "See you later then" he said, turning and walking away.

Ivor wandered Endercon for a few minutes, before he came across Magnus, who was doubled over laughing at a strange contraption with a giant wool chicken built over it. As Ivor got closer, he could see somewhat how it worked. Chickens who were inside would climb around in it, step on a pressure plate, and fall back down to the ground. "Thought you could wiggle out of that trap did you?" Magnus crowed, clearly having the time of his life. "Well, wiggle as much as you want, you're not going anywhere!"

"Magnus, listen up" Ivor said, causing his friend to half turn his head. "Any chance you've seen a creepy, cloak-y guy anywhere near here?" Magnus shook his head briefly, before turning back to the chicken machine. "Nah, Gabe told me what happened, I'm keeping a look out for him." Ivor arched a brow and crossed his arms. Magnus blushed slightly "Ok, so mayybe I got a little distracted. It's just, this thing pushes all my buttons. unnecessarily complicated and mean to birds for no reason! The only thing its missing is some TNT!"

Ivor sighed, and shook his head. Then he asked "Have you seen Reuben? I was hoping he made it to town while I was with Gabriel." Magnus shook his head "Haven't seen hide nor hair of him" he said, emerald green eyes practically glued to the machine. But I'm sure he's fine, he's a toughie"

"Magnus" stressed Ivor. Magnus sighed, and said "Alright, alright. I'll keep looking...right after I watch one more chicken get owned"

Ivor rolled his eyes, and turned around to search the crowd. His gaze landed on a figure who was walking with their back towards him, they weren't wearing a black cloak, but their outfit looked a lot like the one Jesse had been wearing. Their hair was also the same rich caramel brown, and fell at the figure's shoulders. "I've got you now" Ivor growled. He began to walk after the figure, only to be stopped by a white haired teen with purple sunglasses stepping in front of him.

"Well, if it isn't team trashbag" Hadrien purred, leaning forwards slightly. "How's your stupid lamb? I hear intense heat causes brain damage"

At those words, Ivor's gaze turned into a stormy glare, and he grabbed hold of Hadrien's shoulders, pushing him into a nearby wall. "I don't know when" he hissed "I don't know how, but someday, far into the future, when you're least expecting it, I will get my revenge" Hadrien ducked away, holding up his hands in defense "Whoah, easy there champ, I was was just kidding!" Ivor pushed past him, paused, and looked over his shoulder "I wasn't" he growled, before walking away.

Leaving Hadrien behind, Ivor followed the figure until he came close enough to grab them by the shoulder "What do you think yo-" he cut himself off as the figure turned, revealing not Jesse, but a woman with wide blue eyes and a golden hair pin. "Excuse me?" she snapped. Ivor flinched backwards, pulling his hand away "I'm sorry" he stammered "I..I thought you were-"

"Get away from me!" the woman snapped. Ivor took a step backwards "I said sorry" he muttered to the woman's retreating form. Ivor stood there, frozen for a few minutes, until the sound of terrified bleating broke him out of his silent trance. "Reuben?" Ivor called "Reuben is that you?" looking around, the only lamb Ivor could see was a giant wool one where a butcher was calling out to the crowd. "Mutton! Get yer mutton, fresh from the bone!"

Walking closer to the stall Ivor watched in horror as the butcher reached underneath the counter and picked up a trembling black and white form, setting him onto the counter. "Nothing sticks to your ribs like a nice juicy piece o' mutton" the butcher called, pulling a stone axe out of the blood-spattered bag at his side. "REUBEN!" Ivor shouted, racing forwards, causing the butcher to freeze, axe in the air, ready to slice down on the lamb. "What's the big idea?" the butcher said, genuinely confused. "I'm tryin' to run a business here"

"That's my lamb" Ivor said, reaching out and petting Reuben's head. The butcher arched a brow "Oh? Well I found him wandering the woods, so I say that makes 'im _my_ lamb" the butcher chuckled "'es not the fattest sheep in the world, but 'e should cook up real nice."

"He's my friend" Ivor tried, angling his free hand towards his bag, just in case.

"To me, he's inventory" the man said "But...I might be amenable to some sort of trade..." the butcher scanned Ivor "Not that you look like you've got much on you, but if he's that importa-" the butcher froze as Ivor whipped out his sword and pointed the sharp end at the man's throat. "Give. Me back. my sheep" Ivor growled, a dangerous glint in his eyes. The butcher held up his hands, dropping the axe to the ground "Alright, alright" the man said "take it, no lamb's worth injury"

Ivor nodded, sheathing his sword, and picking up Reuben in one smooth movement. Reuben bleated happily, and the pair walked away. Setting Reuben down once the stall was out of sight, Ivor crouched down in front of the lamb and said "I'm sorry. I never should have let you go off on your own." Reuben bleated, and looked away.

The two rounded a corner, and Ivor's gaze immediately snapped onto the form of Jesse. Definitely Jesse this time, his face was turned towards them, but only briefly as he turned away again and continued on. Pushing through the crowd, it didn't take long to lose the man. However, he did find Ellegaard. Tapping her shoulder, Ivor quickly said "remember that thing I had to do with Gabriel?" Ellegaard nodded, but didn't say anything. "Long story short, we met up with this guy, he cheated us out of a diamond, oh and some blaze rods, and now we're trying to track him down. You in?"

Ellegaard nodded "Oh I'm in alright"

"Any sign of him?" Gabriel asked, walking up from behind Ivor with Magnus at his side. Ivor shook his head "I thought I saw him earlier, but it was just a false alarm" scanning the crowd, Ivor jumped slightly and pointed "There!" the others all followed where he was pointing, and saw Jesse climbing the stairs to the Keynote building.

"Looks like he's heading towards the hall" Ivor said, dropping his hand back down to his side. Gabriel frowned, and nodded his head towards the usher "We're going to have to get past the usher in order to get in"

The four humans and one lamb walked up to the blond man and Ivor took point "So...what would it take for us to get inside tonight?" the usher arched a brow at them "Uh...tickets" he said, before laughing like he's just made a hilarious joke.

Ivor rubbed the back of his head "We uh...we had tickets, but then we lost them" The usher hummed "Bummer dude" but didn't say anything after that. The six of them stood in awkward silence, until a chicken that had apparently beaten the man's machine walked over, clucking. The usher shrieked at such a high octave, it should have broken all the glass in Endercon. "CHIICKEEEEN!" he shrieked "Chicken!Chicken!" he proceeded to do this until the chicken tilted its head at him, and flapped away.

"It's gone" the usher said, though mostly to himself "It's totally fine, you're a totally cool dude."

Ivor exchanged a glance with Gabriel, and the group walked out of hearing distance. "We have to do something" Ellegaard said, her 'thoughtful' face on. Magnus frowned "Like what?" he asked "The show's been sold out for months!"

Ivor turned, and looked around. His gaze latched onto the chicken machine, which was a lot closer than he had thought. "The usher is afraid of chickens" he said slowly. Gabriel frowned, and was about to ask Ivor what he meant by that, until he saw where Ivor was looking, and he grinned. "A lot of chickens might be enough of a distraction to get us inside" he said.

Ellegaard frowned, studying the machine "You'd have to break that pane of glass" she said, pointing to a very specific point, rather high up in the machine. "How are you going to reach it?"

"Let's look around" Gabriel said "There's got to be something around here we can use" The group split up, Magnus and Gabriel walking towards a booth that seemed to be selling fireworks, Ellegaard walking closer to the machine to inspect it, to see if there was an easy way to the glass, and Ivor wandered a bit farther, having spotted a man bouncing up and down. Ivor hummed thoughtfully. Now that he was closer, he could see that the man was bouncing up and down on a slime block "I bet I could use some slime to reach the glass" he muttered to himself. Walking up to the booth, only to realize that the woman inside was the one he had encountered earlier, when he thought she was Jesse. "Oh" he said nervously, rubbing the back of his head "We...we meet again" if looks could kill, Ivor should have exploded into dust.

Coughing, Ivor said "One slime block please" the woman rolled her eyes "We don't give out slime blocks here, just slime balls. We've got limited supplies today, so we're only giving out two per customer. If you had nine slime balls, you could craft your own slime block." Ivor nodded at what she was saying, and since she was still glaring, he decided to say "I'm really sorry about before. I thought you were someone else." the woman tilted her head, part of her hair falling over her left eye "Apology accepted" she decided.

Before Ivor could say anything else, Magnus's voice broke in "A round of slime balls for everyone please!"

Once they had gotten their slime, the group walked over to a crafting table that had been set down near a mask booth. "Wait, this is only eight" Ivor said, mentally counting "We need one more to make a block" Gabriel frowned "We need a way to get one more" Magnus grinned "On it!" he said, and Ellegaard nodded. The two took off in separate directions. Ivor however looked at the mask booth, wondering if he could get a mask, put it on, and pretend to be someone else in order to get more slime.

As he was about to do that however, a gloved hand tossed a slime ball into the air, catching both it, and Ivor's attention. Realizing the owner was Harper, Ivor took a deep breath and walked over "Hey Harper" he said, getting the black haired girl's attention. "Can you do me a favor?" Harper arched a brow "Anythings possible" she said slowly

Ivor rubbed the back of his head "I need slime balls, I swear I have a really good reason" Harper looked behind Ivor as Gabriel, Magnus, and Ellegaard all came up behind him, Ellegaard clutching a piece of paper that had hastily scribbled calculations on it. "Whatever you all are up to" Harper said, holding her slime ball out for Ivor to take "count me in"

Gabriel smiled "Thank you Harper" as Ivor turned to the crafting table, tuning everyone out while he placed the slime balls down, he was pretty sure Gabriel added "I told you she was useful"

As he placed the last slime ball, Ivor took a step back so that the balls could tremble, before merging together into a gooey green block. "Tada!" he said, a hint of a chuckle in his voice "One slime block" his smile fell as he looked it over, and he added "Gross"

Ellegaard rolled her eyes, and took the block from the crafting table. Looking over her paper, she set the block down halfway between the mask booth and the chicken machine. "It's all you Ivor" she said, taking a step backwards. Ivor nodded, and with a boost from Magnus and Gabriel, he got to the top of the mask booth. Backing up, Ivor ran along the top of the booth, before jumping right as he reached the end, landing with his feet square on the slime block, before catapulting upwards towards the machine. Reaching the edge of the machine, Ivor grabbed onto the small ledge so he wouldn't go flying to the ground, and he used his head to smash through the glass, before dropping down carefully, flashing red briefly as he landed. Instantly, chickens began swarming out of the machine.

"My precious poultry!" the owner of the booth cried, and the usher let out another ear-splitting shriek "EVERYONE!" the usher shouted "Keep your eyes closed, they'll peck out your eyes!"

"Now's our chance" Gabriel said, after Ivor ran back to them.

Together the five friends raced through the open gate and up the stairs towards the massive white domed building.

* * *


	6. Soul Sand and Wither Skulls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright Chapter Six and things are already going crazy XD This one's a little short, and I've decided to go ahead and just post for this fic for a while until my Ninjago muse returns, so...yeah, expect a lot of updates in the next couple of weeks.
> 
> Also, the woman in the previous chapter is basically a Female Jesse, not Maya  
> (I received a comment on FF that the woman looked like maya, and whoops xD its supposed to be f!Jesse, like the woman in canon is pretty much f!Ivor)
> 
> On to the fic!

As Ivor and Reuben led the way into the building, Gabriel, Ellegaard, Harper, and Magnus carefully filed in behind him. "Where did he go?" Gabriel growled, his hands clenched into fists as he glared at the few people who were inside. The Keynote had yet to start so the building wasn't that full, but judging from the amount of people outside, it looked like the minute Petra stepped onto the stage, the room was going to be jam-packed full of people who had payed the five diamond ticket fee before the disappointed people outside the fence. Well...it would be full of the people who had payed, plus four people and a lamb that had broken in.

Ivor scanned the room, and his eyes latched on a swinging oak door in a side hall "There" he said, nodding at it. Picking up Reuben so that he wouldn't be lost again, Ivor led the way through the semi-crowded room over to the door. As they reached it, Harper reached out and placed a hand on Ivor's shoulder "Wait" she said, causing Ivor to turn half-way in order to face her. "What do we do once we catch him?" the black haired female asked. "There are a hundred ways to play this, but...this isn't my fight. I'll follow your lead."

"Whatever it takes" Ivor said instantly, his voice calm and steady. Harper tilted her head slightly, but nodded. "You're way more intense than I gave you credit for Ivor" she said, pulling her hand back. Ivor frowned, and arched a brow, but when Harper didn't make a move to explain, Ivor just shrugged and turned to Gabriel "Ready?" Gabriel nodded, pale blue eyes glinting in the glowstone lights. "Ready" he said, voice firm.

Ivor nodded, and turned back to the door. Setting Reuben down, Ivor carefully turned the knob and pushed the door open, revealing a flight of stone stairs.

* * *

Reaching the bottom of what had to have been at least 64 blocks down from their start point, the five people fanned out slightly in front of the stairs, Reuben standing behind Ivor. "See him?" Ivor whispered, and after a few, tense, moments, Gabriel finally responded "He must have gone out a different way"

Relaxing slightly, Ivor took his first real look at their surroundings, and tilted his head curiously. The six of them were standing at the entranceway of a massive library, covered in cobwebs, and with potions sitting on nearly every clear surface. Ellegaard stared at the maze of bookshelves and muttered "What _is_ this _?"_

Ivor tilted his head, and pointed to a wall of chests. "Looks like it used to be the basement...weird place for a hideout"

Gabriel peered around the room and said "I'll bet you anything we'll find my skull down here" Magnus wandered over towards a lone chest that had a potion on top if it. Staring at the soft pink liquid, the bald male called over his shoulder "And if we find anything else cool to steal along the way...so be it, right?" he leaned back to get a good look at a redstone lamp that was hanging from several fence-posts. A grin split his face as his fingers twitched slightly upwards.

Gabriel frowned "That is not what we are here to do Magnus" he said warningly. Ivor however traced his hand along a bookshelf and said "I did say we should do whatever we have to" he said musingly, his eyes catching a book titled 'Hybrid'. The author's name was partially rubbed off, but he could see the first part which read 'Ariza L'.

Magnus's smile widened "And if the guy's not around, then what we have to do, is steal!" Ellegaard frowned at him "I don't think that's what Ivor meant" Gabriel nodded "I don't want to stoop to his level" Magnus huffed, and dragged his attention away from the Nether Wart growing in the corner. "But isn't that the best way to get back at him?"

Ivor hummed, and continued to scan the books, finding one titled '2293' by someone called Raintag, seated next to a book entitled 'Execution Warrants' by the same author. "I say take whatever you want" the black haired teen called, gaining a frown aimed in his direction from Gabriel "Ivor" the dark skinned man said warningly. Ivor held up his hands in defense "Hey, he stole from us, we should be able to steal from him and not feel bad about it" Walking away from the bookshelves and towards a chest he added "Now come on, the sooner we find the skull the sooner we can get out of here"

* * *

It took about five minutes for Gabriel to give in and start searching chests. Ivor came upon him pulling out a shining golden sword. Gabriel swung the sword, causing Ivor to take a nervous step back. Gabriel frowned, and rested the blade in the palm of his hand. "Too heavy" he said with dissapointment "And too soft" Ivor shrugged "but super flashy" he offered. Gabriel chuckled, then tilted his head at Ivor "Do you still have that one stone sword?" Ivor nodded "Yeah, I had to use to to threaten some jerk butcher" Gabriel nodded, swung the sword again, though thankfully away from Ivor this time, before placing it carefully into his bag. Ivor arched a brow "I thought it was too heavy, too soft?" he said curiously. Gabriel chuckled "Yes, but it is quite flashy, as you said"

Leaving Gabriel to his own devices, Ivor wandered around the room until he found Magnus. "Find anything?" the black haired teen asked. Magnus grinned, and started pointing around the room. "I want to steal that" a soft golden potion "and that" a golden apple hanging from an item frame. "And I just want to touch that" he pointed at a mushroom that was sitting on a patch of dirt. Ivor rolled his eyes, and in doing so, caught sight of a glowing purple potion. Walking towards it, he bent down so that it was directly in front of his face. "Look at this" he said, watching the liquid churn and bubble of it's own accord.

Magnus walked up behind him, and stared at the potion bottle. "You're not gonna believe this" the green wearing male said "But I swear I had a dream about this. Okay potion, I know this is a big step, but...I would be honored if you would come home with me" Ivor blinked at him, and when he made no move to stop Magnus, the bald teen grinned and reached out, grabbing the potion and tucking it away into his inventory bag.

Ivor frowned "He's going to know his fancy potion is missing" he pointed out. Magnus scoffed, and said "Oh ye of little faith." walking over to a shelf, he picked up another purple potion, although this one wasn't glowing, and set it down where the potion had been "A good thief always covers his tracks."

Ivor rolled his eyes "The perfect crime" he muttered. Spotting Ellegaard looking at some bookshelves, Ivor wandered over to her. "Find anything interesting?" Ellegaard turned to look at him over her shoulder and said "Well, whoever this guy is, he's no slouch at enchanting. This is some pretty advanced stuff" she traced a hand along a glowing purple book and said "This one is labeled Sharpness five, Fire Aspect two."

As Ellegaard continued to look over the books, Ivor turned to Reuben. "Hey Reuben, find any clues?" the little lamb bleated and sniffed at the ground, stamping his hooves against the cracked stone brick floor. "Do you smell something?" but Reuben just bleated again and walked over to a chest that had a item frame with a piece of wheat over it.

Chuckling, Ivor shook his head slightly, and then turned to look at Harper. The young woman, like Ellegaard, was looking over the bookshelves. "Find anything?" he asked. Harper chuckled slightly "Unless you want to learn how to build a lair with everyday objects, then no" Ivor sighed "Just...keep looking. There's got to be something useful here" Harper nodded, and put away the book she had in her hand.

Turning back towards Reuben, Ivor watched as the lamb jumped onto the chest and lifted his front hooves up so that they were resting on a gap in the wall. Bleating, the lamb poked his head into the hole and pulled it back out covered in dust and small, glowing specks of...redstone?

"What have you found?" Ivor whispered, walking over to Reuben and peering into the hole. Finding himself staring at a lever, Ivor did the obvious thing. He reached in and pulled it.

The instant the switch was pulled, the ground began to shake, and pistons began to move, their unmistakable sound echoing through the room, pulling away bookshelves to reveal a chest and a very strange structure. A strange, glowing orange block with a white middle, surrounded by dark gray blocks that looked like they had screaming faces on them.

Aware of the others walking up behind him, Ivor approached the strange sand-like blocks "What is this stuff?" he asked, reaching a hand out to touch it, and when he pulled his fingers away they were covered in the strange gray sand. "Soul Sand" Gabriel answered, nodding at the pale blocks. "It was everywhere in the Nether. But I'm not sure what that is" he added, nodding at the orange block. "I've never seen one of these before" Ellegaard said, reaching out and hovering her hand just above the strange block. "If i could just..." her eyes widened and she cut herself off "Do you feel that?" she asked Ivor, who's hands were the closest beside her own "It's...pulsing"

"It's glowing too" Magnus noted "How do you think it's doing that?"

Ivor shook his head, and placed his hand on Ellegaard's "Don't touch it Ellie, we don't know what it does"

Ellegaard nodded, and pulled her hand back "You never know" she said "It could blow up on contact, like TNT with fire."

"Don't forget what we're here for" Gabriel said "Find that skull!" the others nodded, and went back off the platform. Ivor however turned his gaze towards the chest that had appeared when the lever had been pulled. Walking over to it, he pushed it open and stared at its contents. "So..." he called over his shoulder, gaining attention of the others "Good news, weird news" as the others reached him and began to peer into the chest, Ivor said "Good news, I found the skull, weird news..." he trailed off, leaning back from the chest so that they could all see the two Wither skulls sitting carefully inside.

"What the hell?" Ivor turned to stare at Gabriel, who only swore when he was absolutely livid, which he definitely was now. "Why did I risk my life for that skull if he's already got two?" Harper spoke up, causing the others to turn towards her "Three wither skulls?" she said slowly, her face pale and her eyes wide "Soul sand?" she turned towards the structure "That's...the recipe for a Wither." Gabriel paled, all fury drained from his face "A wither, but that's..." he trailed off, unable to finish. Harper nodded "One of the worst monsters there is" she said, her face nearly as pale as his.

Ivor rose to his feet, leaving the chest wide open "We came down here to find the skull" he said "Well, we found it. Question is, what do we do now?"

Gabriel shook his head slightly "We take one of these, and get out of here as fast as we can. We need to warn someone, anyone, before he gets his hands on another" But before they could do anything, the sound of footsteps on stone rang through the room. "Scatter!" Harper hissed

Pausing only to flip the switch, Ivor dove between a double chest and a bookshelf. From his hiding place, he could watch the entrance through a small slit in the books, and any hope he might have had that it wasn't Jesse was squashed like a chicken under sand as the brown haired man entered the small room. The man was muttering to himself, something about 'surprises' and 'recognition' before his eyes lit up "Thought I was dead, didn't you" he practically purred "Yes, that's it." reaching up to his neck, Jesse unclasped his cloak, and carefully set it on an armor stand, revealing his neck, and the lightning bolt shaped scar that sliced neatly across it. "I want her to see just exactly the result of her handiwork" Jesse growled, reaching a hand up to trace the scar.

Ivor watched as Jesse moved about the room, thankfully not seeing any of the others hidden carefully through the room, although he almost saw Reuben at one point. Walking past the potion stand that had the fake fancy potion on it, Jesse knelt down in front of the double chest that Gabriel had taken the sword from. Before he could realize anything was missing however, the sound of a glass bottom smashing onto the ground and breaking open sounded through the room. Jesse snapped to his feet, whirling around and grabbing the iron sword that was still hanging from his side "Who's there?" he shouted, stalking towards the orange swirly things rising from the ground where the bottle had fallen.

Before Jesse could discover whoever had knocked the potion off of the shelf, Ivor leaped out of his hiding place "Hey!" he shouted, brows drawn together in determination. Jesse whirled around, mouth dropping open out of shock. "What are you doing here?" he asked, then his eyes widened further, though that shouldn't have been possible, and he hissed "What did you see?"

"Leave him alone" Gabriel said, emerging from a side-closet. Magnus emerged from underneath a shelf, and Harper and Ellegaard came around bookshelves. "You two" Jesse snarled, glaring between Gabriel and Ivor. "Did you follow me here?" Gabriel crossed his arms "You thought you could screw us over and get away with it did you?" he said, completely ignoring Jesse's question.

"We're here to prove you wrong buddy" Magnus chimed in, but Jesse barked a laugh "What do you think you're going to do about it?" he asked, a slightly maniac smile splitting his face "I have what I wanted, you got exactly what you earned. Now, get out before I force you out myself."

Ivor took a step closer, and Jesse took a partial step back. "We know what you're doing down here" Ivor said, his voice dangerously low. Soul sand and wither skulls? You're crafting a Wither!"

Jesse gave Ivor an odd look "Smarter than you look" he mused. Magnus narrowed his eyes "Hey!" he snarled "Watch what you say about my friends"

Jesse just rolled his eyes "Enough" he said, straightening up "You've wasted enough of my time already" though Ivor was expecting it, he wasn't quite fast enough to grab hold of the blue and gold cloak as Jesse suddenly took off towards the part of the room that displayed four iron blocks, one atop another with one hanging out of two of its sides. "If you won't leave of your own volition" Jesse said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a pumpkin. "I'll happily remove you myself" Placing the pumpkin on top of the iron block that was in the middle top, Ivor and his friends began to back up slightly as the formation began to shudder.

With a poof of smoke, the statue transformed into an Iron Golem, and its blood red eyes bored into the group. "Show our friends the door, will you?" Jesse said with a purr. Grabbing hold of Reuben, Ivor took off for the door, yelping as the golem just barely missed him. Not bothering to look behind him as he ran, Ivor prayed that the footsteps he could hear behind him were the footsteps of all four of the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap :D
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and expect more soon because like I said, I'm taking a temporary hiatus from writing Legends of Ninjago, just until my muse returns.
> 
> See you all next time
> 
> ~Savannah


	7. Secrets and Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really pumped up because if you google(and probably on other search engines as well) Minecraft Story Mode Reverse AU Twisted Timelines is the eighth result. Add the word fanfiction, and it becomes the sixth result :D
> 
> On to the fic!

Bursting out of the basement, Ivor led the others into the massive crowd of people who were gathering to listen to the announcers up on stage. Mingling into the crowd, Ivor could hear what the announcers were saying "And now, for the first time ever at Endercon, we are proud to present, the Warrior of the Order of the Stone herself, give it up for PETRA!"

As a redheaded woman stepped into the circle of light, Ivor and his friends regrouped at the back of the crowd "Is everyone alright?" Ivor hissed, keeping his voice quiet so as not to disturb the people who were blissfully unaware of the monster being created downstairs. Ellegaard looked around the group, paled, and looked them over again "Where's Harper?" she asked, keeping her voice low as well. Ivor paled as well as he looked into the crowd and failed to see the brown wearing female. "I thought she was right behind me" Ivor said slowly.

Magnus picked at the edges of his dark green hoodie "Uh, if she's not up here, then that means she's down there" Ivor and the others all turned to look towards the oak door, closed and blending into the shadows. "Jesse's got an Iron Golem, and all the ingredients to build a Wither town there" Gabriel said, turning his head to look over the huge group of people who were cheering at whatever Petra had just said. "If he unleashes it on this crowd of people..." he shook his head, unable to finish "We need to act quickly."

"It just so happens" Ellegaard said slowly, her dark amber eyes trained on the stage "that the greatest warrior of all time is in the building. We should ask Petra for help, it's the best way to save Harper" Gabriel nodded "She is quite tough, she can hold out until we get Petra on our side"

Ivor shook his head "You guys get Petra, I'm going after Harper myself."

Gabriel frowned "Are you sure Ivor?"

Ivor turned so that he was facing the door to the basement "I'm sure. You all focus on getting Petra, I'll be back, with Harper, as soon as I can."

* * *

Tiptoeing down the stairs took a lot longer than normal walking, but since he didn't want the Iron Golem to hear him Ivor was going for the stealth approach. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Ivor peered carefully around the room. Not seeing the golem, Ivor began to creep into the room. "Harper" Ivor hissed "Can you hear me?" walking further into the room, he added "even though I'm whispering?"

"Ivor?" Harper's voice hissed back. Head snapping towards the direction, Ivor watched as Harper lifted the lid of the chest he had hidden behind earlier. "Is that you?" Ivor nodded, and gestured for her to get out and come towards him. Harper pushed the lid higher, then gasped, and ducked back down. Ivor frowned, and turned his head towards where she had been looking, and gasped, ducking behind a bookshelf and narrowly avoiding being spotted by the Iron Golem, which was wandering through the library.

A few minutes later, as soon as the coast was clear, Ivor leaned out again and hissed "Are you alright?" Harper's chuckle could be heard, muffled, through the chest, and the lid cracked open enough to reveal her eyes "It's ah...Well, I can't say it's the best spot I've ever been. Any bright ideas?" Ivor nodded, his face hard "I'm going to go in swinging" he said.

Harper's eyes narrowed skeptically "With what?" Ivor drew his stone sword, and Harper gave him a glare "Don't. You. Dare" Ivor groaned, but sheathed his sword. Peering around the bookshelf he was hiding behind to watch the Iron Golem, Ivor picked up a potion that was resting on a shelf next to him, and hurled it on the opposite side of the room. The Iron Golem's head swung towards the noise, and lumbered in that direction. "Now Harper!" Ivor snapped "Run!"

Harper leapt out of the chest and half ran half stumbled towards the stairs.

Narrowly avoiding the Iron Golem's swinging arms as it chased them, Ivor ducked at the same time Reuben turned around and head-butted the creature in its chest. Trotting back to Ivor's side as the golem fell to its back, Ivor grinned and rubbed Reuben's head "Thanks bud" he said, before turning to chase after Harper who was already half-way up the stairs. Once they were high enough that the golem, too wide to fit in the stairwell, couldn't reach them, the three slowed to a walk. "Thanks for coming back for me" Harper said softly. "I wasn't sure that anyone would."

Ivor smiled slightly at her "No one left behind"

* * *

As Harper and Ivor emerged from the basement stairs, Ivor's dark blue gaze instantly honed in on Magnus, standing at the back of the crowd, and talking as loudly as he could without shouting.

"I cannot be any clearer!" the bald male was saying "Weird, guy, doing weird stuff!" besides him, Ellegaard had her face in her palm and was shaking her head, and Gabriel was sidling into the crowd like he didn't want to be associated with Magnus.

"Freaky with a side of strange!" Magnus continued, as Harper and Ivor walked close enough to see Petra's confused, and slightly tired expression. "Why won't you listen to me?" Magnus added "What, do you want me to tell you charades style?"

"I promise you" Petra said, rubbing the space between her eyes with one hand, while the other hand rested on her hip. "That is the LAST thing I want you to do"

"Four words!" Magnus said anyways, holding up one hand with his thumb bent across his palm "Six syllables, rhymes with Scmonster in the Smasement"

Petra's hand went from between her eyes to covering her entire face. "Next" the redhead called through her palm.

"Wait-" Ellegaard tried to say something, anything, but a new, chillingly familiar voice rang through the room.

"I have a question" Ivor paled, and turned his head towards the raised hand that was connected to a brown haired figure in the back of the crowd, that was steadily moving forwards."

"Just tell me first" Jesse said "Do you truly believe anyone can be great?" Petra tilted her head, as though she didn't understand the question, but she answered "With enough hard work, yeah"

"So that was where I went wrong" Jesse snarled, pushing people out of his way so that his face was in full view of Petra "I simply didn't work hard enough?"

Petra looked like she was going into shock "Jesse?" she whispered, eyes wide and jaw nearly unhinged "Jesse is that...is that you?"

Jesse's head tilted slightly to the side and he said with no little smirk "Thought I was dead, didn't you" he said, gesturing to the scar that was fully visible without his cloak "Well you thought wrong"

"That's the guy that attacked us in the basement!" Ivor shouted, but Petra seemed unable to move, unable to speak, as she stared at the brown haired man.

"Why don't you tell them the real story Petra" Jesse snarled, dusting off his cloak as he climbed up the three steps to the stage. "Jesse" the redhead said "Jesse, I...I didn't want to, you have to know that"

"What is she talking about?" Ellegaard whispered, and Ivor shook his head "I have no clue"

"Whether you wanted to or not, you still did it" Jesse snapped, crossing his arms. "Now then, these people were promised greatness, and I'm ready to deliver."

Walking over to the edge of the stage where a lever sat ontop of a red concrete beam, Jesse turned his head so that his gaze met Petra's "I am sorry that this is how they must learn the truth"

"Petra, you've got to stop him!" Magnus shouted, as Jesse pulled the lever and pistons began firing. Part of the floor pulled away and the soul sand, strange orange block, and two wither skulls emerged out of the floor.

"Nothing built can last forever Petra" Jesse said, quoting the book 'Legend of the Order'. Reaching into his bag, Jesse pulled out the final Wither Skull, and Petra finally moved "Jesse no!" she shouted, lunging forwards.

But it was too late, the skull had already been placed on top of the middle block, and with an explosion that knocked Petra and Jesse away, the Wither came to life.

Jesse got to his feet first, a maniac grin splitting his face as he shouted "Wither, Attack!"

The block in the middle glowed brighter, and the monster began shooting out flaming wither skulls at the people, who, understandably, were running away screaming in terror.

Petra seemed to have snapped out of the shock of seeing Jesse, and her brows narrowed "Everyone remain calm" she shouted over the screams "This foul beast is no match for me" she drew her sword and would likely have charged while the Wither was still distracted, but Jesse snarled "Wither, Attack!" this time pointing at Petra. The orange block glowed brightly again, and all three of the monster's heads turned to face Petra.

With a shout, the Warrior lunged forwards, slashing at the orange block with her enchanted sword. For a half-second the beast caught on fire, but it quickly recovered, letting out an inhuman screech and shooting flaming skulls at Petra, who tried to knock them away with her sword, only to end up with her sword clattering to the ground, and herself flashing red.

"What have you done?" Petra wheezed out, one hand over her ribcage, while the other she used to push herself to her feet.

"Petra!" Ivor shouted, starting to run closer, but freezing when the redhead shouted "No! Stay back, it's after me, not you"

"I do believe this has gone on long enough. Petra, you may not be able to defeat this beast, but I can" Jesse said, stepping up to the stage once again "Wither, retreat" he shouted. The Wither turned towards him slowly. While it had been shooting out wither skulls, it had been sucking in other blocks, and its middle head was now something of nightmares. The middle block was still exposed though, carried in the beast's ribcage. Jesse cleared his throat "Retreat!" he shouted again. When still nothing happened he shouted "Retreat! I said Retreat!"

The Wither did not retreat, if anything it actually drew closer to Jesse, who was taking nervous steps backwards.

"It's not working" Ivor shouted.

"No need to be alarmed everyone" Jesse said, digging around in his inventory bag "I have an elixer that will destroy this creature" he pulled out a purple potion, and Ivor and Magnus instantly paled. "Is that..." Ivor said slowly, turning to Magnus, who nodded, eyes glued to the potion Jesse held in his hands.

Pulling the cork out, Jesse took aim, and threw the potion directly at the block the Wither held. The potion exploded into purple particles...and nothing happened. "What?" Jesse said, stumbling backwards "Impossible, I took such care"

"The potion!" Ellegaard shouted "Magnus, throw the potion!" Magnus frowned "But...finders keepers" he said, with a small whine.

"You thieves!" Jesse snarled "You've ruined everything"

Reluctantly, Magnus withdrew the potion from his bag, and Ivor snatched it from his gloved hands. Taking only a few seconds to aim, Ivor threw the potion, and watched as it smashed into the black scale-like hide that had just finished covering the glowing orange block.

"It's protecting itself" Jesse said in horror "Without the Command Block exposed, the potion is useless! It...it wasn't supposed to happen like this" while he was speaking, the brown haired man was backing up slowly. As he said those final words, he turned tail and took off.

"Coward!" Ivor shouted after him. He would have said more, but a purple beam of light was suddenly shooting out of the wither's middle head. The light darted around the room for a few minutes, before targeting in on Petra, who began to float upwards towards the creature. Ellegaard shot forwards, and grabbed hold of the warrior's left leg "Ivor help!" the redstone specialist shouted, and Ivor ran forwards, taking hold of Petra's other leg, and together with Ellegaard, the pair pulled the redhead out of the light, causing her to collapse back to the ground.

"Thank you" Petra said, picking up her sword since she had fallen near it. Sheathing it, Petra turned to stare at the Wither before she said "Jesse was right about one thing, I can't defeat this thing on my own." she turned, and studied the six of them. Gabriel, sword drawn. Ellegaard, covered head to toe in redstone dust. Magnus, fingers tapping nervously against his side, Harper, hugging her arms and shuddering as she stared at the Wither. Reuben, bleating and shaking with fear, and Ivor, looking up at Petra with determination.

"Everyone is running away, everyone...but you" Petra said. "Will you come with me? I must get to the temple, but what happens next, I cannot do on my own"

Ivor didn't hesitate before saying "Of course" and the others were quick to follow with their own words of agreement.

"Then let's get out of here, we haven't a moment to spare"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap!
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed, see ya next time!
> 
> Remember to review
> 
> ~Savannah


	8. Run, Fight, Run Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing to say up here so...  
> On to the Fic!

Ivor, Harper, Gabriel, Magnus, Ellegaard, and Reuben, led by Petra, burst out of what remained of the Keynot building. Emerging into the fenced area around the building, Ivor stared at the destruction they were passing. People were screaming and running out of town, chickens were still flying around everywhere, and debris coated the ground.

Behind them, Ivor could hear the sound of the Wither breaking through the round glass dome of the building, and a chill ran down his spine as he heard not one, not two, but three furious roars. Turning his head ever so slightly, he could see that the two heads on either side of the beast had transformed just like the middle head, and each shot out its own purple light.

Barely making it out of the fenced area, Ivor followed the others into the town, then let out a shout of surprise as a purple light engulfed him. Letting out a yelp as he began to float upwards, Ivor half swam in the air half thrashed around blindly until he managed to grab hold of a piece of a tent that was now floating as well. Just barely crawling out of the purple light, Ivor crashed down onto the ground, flashed red, and continued to run.

Spotting Harper, Ivor began to make his way towards her. Harper had paused, and was staring at the Keynot building. Ivor turned to follow her gaze, and the dark skinned woman whispered "If I was still in that basement...thanks for coming back for me Ivor, I wouldn't be here otherwise"

"Ivor!" Gabriel's voice shouted. Turning so that he was facing the direction of the voice, Ivor saw Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus and Reuben taking shelter underneath a stand that had yet to be a target for the monster Jesse had created. Ivor and Harper began making their way closer, but almost the very second that they reached it a purple light washed over it and the structure began to tremble. "Run!" shouted Ivor, and the four took off, Ellegaard and Magnus running one way, while Gabriel and Reuben took off in the opposite direction.

"Wa-Wait!" Ivor called, stumbling over his words as he nearly ran right into a fencepost "We need to stick together!"

"Ivor!" came Gabriel's voice, this time really close, and Ivor had to just barely turn his head to see the dark skinned male being sucked upwards by the strange purple beam. "Help me!" Ivor didn't hesitate as he raced towards Gabriel. Grabbing one of Gabriel's hands with one of his own, Ivor used the other hand to latch onto the fence he had just nearly ran into.

Instead of moving around like the other lights were doing, this one stayed focused on them, and the pulling sensation seemed to get stronger. "I...can't, hold...on!" Ivor said, feeling his fingers begin to slide as his feet were lifted off of the ground.

Ivor could feel Gabriel's fingers begin to slip, and so, instead of letting go of his friend, Ivor let go of the fence. (well, maybe the fence broke and flew upwards, but he let go of it in the process.)

For a single, terrifying second, the two of them shot upwards. Then, a hand grabbed Ivor's foot and pulled the two of them out of the light's reach. Gabriel, having been the highest up, flashed red when he landed, but waved away Ivor's concerned looks.

The others, having apparently realized that Ivor, Gabriel, and Petra weren't with them emerged from the debris. "Do we have everyone?" Ivor asked, doing a quick headcount. Once he nodded, Petra took lead and began running, the others all close behind.

"We need to get to my fortress" Petra called over her shoulder "Once we get there we'll be safe"

* * *

They had been running for roughly five minutes.

Five, absolutely heart-pounding, terrifying minutes.

"Stick together!" Petra shouted. She was still in the lead, taking them deeper into the woods than Ivor had ever been before. "We'll be safe as soon as we get to my temple!"

"I thought you said it was a fortress?" Magnus shouted back. Petra nodded "It's both"

Before she could say any more, the Wither, which seemed to be following after them, though more slowly as it sucked in more and more blocks, shot out a round of flaming wither skulls, which they all had to dodge. The beast shot more skulls, these ones landing about fifty blocks ahead and setting fire to a cluster of trees.

Forced to seperate into two groups, Petra, Gabriel, and Harper, as well as Hadrien, Otto, the butcher from Minecon and a guy wearing a skeleton mask went left, while Ellegaard, Magnus, Reuben, and Ivor went right, followed by Mevia, the woman that looked like Jesse, and a number of the chickens from the machine.

"We'll meet up on the other side!" Petra shouted over the chaos.

* * *

The 'other side' turned out to be a clearing about two hundred blocks away from the original fire, since the Wither kept shooting flaming skulls, which in turn kept setting more trees on fire.

In front of the clearing was a huge, massive even, structure made primarily of gold, wood, and stone bricks. Petra ran up the steps and began waving people inside. Most of the large group had splintered away, running off in their own directions to flee. This left Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus, Harper, Reuben, and Ivor to enter the building. Petra followed, and pulled the Iron doors shut.

* * *

The seven of them had been running down stone stairs for the past three minutes. "The inner chamber is made completely out of obsidian" Petra was saying "We should be untouchable in there"

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Petra pulled a lever on the wall and the stone wall pulled away to reveal two sets of double iron doors in a four block thick obsidian chamber. Placing a button down, Petra opened the first set of doors, and once they were all through she broke the button and slid inside before they could shut.

Right as the door closed, a black tentacle slammed into it, and Ellegaard let out a scream, jumping backwards and nearly landing in Magnus's arms. Petra quickly threw a lever which opened the second set of doors, and ushered the group through them, closing the lever on the other side, which locked the door. Drawing her sword just in case, Petra gestured to a square of obsidian that was on a raised platform. It was four blocks wide and five blocks tall, with the inside hollowed out. "Hurry, if you can get through the portal you'll be safe!"

The others all nodded, and raced up the steps, Magnus charged through the frame first, only to stumble out the other side. "Uh...something's not right here"

"It's not lit" Ellegaard said with a groan

"Anyone have flint and steel?" Harper asked, searching her own inventory as she said it.

Ivor's eyes widened, and he all but ripped open his bag, pushing away the leftover wool so that he could grab the Flint and Steel he had taken from his treehouse earlier. Striking the two pieces of the item together, a fire burned on the obsidian for half a second before a purple, see-through glow began to shimmer between the fourteen obsidian blocks.

"Everyone in" Gabriel said "Now!" Ellegaard was the first one through, followed by Magnus, and Reuben quickly followed. But before Gabriel, Ivor, or Harper could get through, the Wither let out another one of it's terrifying screeches, and broke through the second set of Iron Doors, wrapping its tentacle around Petra's leg and pulling her backwards. Ivor pulled out his stone sword and ran forwards, Gabriel close behind with the golden sword he had grabbed from Jesse's in his hands.

Another tentacle burst through the roof, but Ivor ignored it, letting Gabriel attack the second tentacle, Ivor focused on the one that was pulling Petra out of the obsidian chamber. Grabbing hold of Petra, Ivor and the tentacle played tug of war, before the tentacle retreated, knocking over two people from Endercon that had just squeezed into the chamber in the process.

"Thank you" Petra said quietly. Turning to watch as a woman ran, screaming from a tractor beam, Petra took a half step forwards, then stopped herself. "There are so many of them" she whispered "I can't save them all...not by myself. You must find the others"

Ivor tilted his head "Others?" but Petra spoke as though she hadn't heard him "Lukas has been missing for years, but the others...you must seek them out." The redheaded woman reached into her inventory bag and pulled out a medallion with five gems, one gold, one white, one red, one green, and in the middle a dark blue one. The golden one was glowing brightly, though it dimmed ever so slightly as she handed it to Ivor. "Take this amulet, guard it with your life. " Ivor held the amulet carefully, as though he didn't want to accept it. "You can do this" Petra said "You MUST do this."

Ivor took a deep breath, and then tucked the amulet carefully away into his bag "How do I find Olivia and Axel" Petra gave him a thankful look before saying "The amulet will guide you, take it through the portal and then-" she was cut off as yet another tentacle reached through the roof, which was the only part of the room not made of obsidian. Coiling up, the tentacle thrust upwards in one movement, and the entire roof pulled away, allowing two heads to peer in, casting their purple lights into the room.

Turning around, Ivor could see Gabriel attacking one of the tentacles, and Harper, standing, completely frozen, in front of the portal. "You two!" Gabriel shouted, catching a quick glimpse of Ivor watching him "Get through the portal! Meet up with the others" neatly dodging a swipe from the tentacle Gabriel added "I'm going to stay here and do what I can to help" Ivor's eyes widened, and he darted forwards, using his Stone sword to block a tentacle that had been sneaking up behind Gabriel. "Ivor, Harper, go through the portal, now!" Gabriel shouted, after a quick nod of thanks to Ivor.

"Not without you" Ivor snapped, swinging his sword at the tentacle again. Gabriel's brow was furrowed in determination and he said "I'm sorry Ivor, this is something I have to do" Ivor turned his head to try and get Harper on his side, but she was still frozen. "If anything happens" Gabriel continued "I'll meet you at the temple"

Before Ivor could protest further, a female voice let out a cry for help. Instinctively, he turned towards Harper, but she had snapped out of her trance and was dodging tentacles. She didn't appear to have been the one who had screamed which meant...

Turning his head towards Petra, Ivor watched as purple light washed over her and she began to float up towards the monster. Ivor and Gabriel both ran closer, to help, to do something, anything, but a purple light cast dark shadows in front of Ivor, and he turned to see Gabriel floating in the air as well.

Ivor froze, but only for half a second. Petra was further away, as well as higher up. Gabriel was closer, lower, and not to mention...his friend. Ivor lunged and knocked Gabriel out of the light. "Thank you Ivor" Gabriel said "Petra is still up there" Ivor turned to look at the redhead, who was now almost halfway to the ceiling. The Warrior caught Ivor's gaze and shouted "GO!" Ivor jumped to his feet, and tried to run towards Petra, but a tentacle slammed into his chest.

Ivor didn't have any hope of dodging, or getting out of its way as the tentacle scooped up both him and Gabriel, and threw them onto the stairs. Barely managing to get to his feet, Ivor had just enough time to watch Gabriel roll down the stairs before a second tentacle rammed into both him and Harper, who had come down a few steps to get closer to him, and knocked both of them into the portal.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap!
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed, I know I certainly did XD
> 
> Really looking forwards to the next chapter, and I haven't said this in a while but since Twisted Timelines is starting to pick up some more readers, I figure I will say it again. No matter how much I love them, or use them in usernames, I swear I am not an angry wild cat who will bite your face off(caracal ;)). I am quite friendly, and if you catch an error in this fic, or really any of my fics, PLEASE tell me. The worst that will happen to you is hugglez in my next response to your next reply (if that makes any sense xD)
> 
> Anyways, see you all next time and remember to review!
> 
> ~Savannah


	9. Nether Tracks

Ivor's back slammed into a block that was hot as fire. And as if that wasn't bad enough, less than half a second later something landed on top of him. "Get...off" he grunted, pushing Harper away from him. Harper coughed, and rolled off of Ivor. Although she was pretty quick to get to her feet when the heat from whatever they were lying on sunk in. Ivor pressed his palms against the ground to push himself up, which turned out to be a bad idea for when he pulled his hands up and examined them, his palms and fingers were covered in burns. Nothing too major, barely even something to worry about.

It still hurt though.

Thankfully whatever red block he was standing on didn't seem to sear through his clothes or shoes, and once he was standing up the heat wasn't quite so bad. Rubbing his left palm with the back of his right hand, Ivor looked around, and for the first time got a good look at his surroundings. Red was the primary color. With splashes of Soul Sand gray, bright yellow Glowstone, and orange lava. "I didn't realize how horrifying the Nether was" Ivor muttered.

At the sound of Ivor's voice, Ellegaard, Magnus, and Reuben turned from where they had been watching pig-like zombies roam around.

"Where's Gabriel?" Magnus asked the instant he realized the blue loving male was not with them. "We did everything we could" Harper said softly, her gray eyes closed as she shook her head, arms crossed across her torso. Magnus took a threatening step towards her "What is that supposed to mean?" he questioned, a hint of a growl in his voice. "Ivor" Ellegaard said, resting a hand on Magnus's shoulder "What is she talking about?"

Ellegaard's dark amber eyes were confused, and worried, and Ivor found himself pausing before he spoke. Finally, when Magnus let out another growl, Ivor said "It was chaos. There wasn't much that I...that we could do" Ivor turned towards Harper, and caught her giving him a grateful look. Shifting uncomfortably, Ivor added "Gabriel is still up there"

That got Magnus's attention away from Harper, and the green wearing male stalked towards the portal "We've got to go back" he insisted. Ellegaard reached out and grabbed his hood, causing him to jerk back rather violently. "No" she said, letting go of his hoodie and walking around him so that she was between him and the portal "We just have to wait. Think about what you're walking into"

"There's nothing you can do" Ivor agreed, getting yet another grateful look, though this one from Ellegaard. "You'll just end up getting yourself killed"

Magnus whirled towards him "You don't know that Ivor, you don't know-"

"Wait!"

Magnus froze mid-sentence and turned towards Harper, who's gray eyes were glued on the portal, which was swirling wildly and throwing out purple particles. "There he is!" the portal's glow began to sway, and for a brief second, the teens managed to catch a glimpse of the other side.

The obsidian chamber was destroyed, there was no sign of life, except for whoever was going through the portal, the Wither was gone, for the time being.

However, as the image faded and the person in the portal entered into the Nether...it was not Gabriel, but Jesse.

The brown haired man collapsed almost the instant he arrived and he let out a hiss of pain as the red block began to burn the side of his face. Pushing himself up with one hand, and hissing again as steam rose from said hand, Jesse got to his feet and looked around. Eyes locking on Ivor, Jesse let out a frustrated groan "You again?"

Before words, or blows, could be exchanged, the portal began to swirl again. Ivor and his friends looked towards it hopefully, but Jesse began to move away from it. Instead of a person, a black tentacle shot through the portal, and lashed around. Jumping out of the black things way, Ivor let out a yelp of pain, and heard hisses from Harper and Magnus as their skin all made contact with the very aggravating red block that Ivor was coming to hate.

Before the Wither could get hold of them, the tentacle wrapped around the portal and tugged, breaking off the top left block as well as two on the left side. A shriek of pain could be heard through the portal as the tentacle withdrew, just barely managing to retreat into the purple mist as the portal flickered, and then broke apart.

For a few minutes, the only sound was that of the Zombie Pig-men. Then, Ivor turned to Jesse, his gaze full of pure fury and hate. "Jesse" he growled out, causing the brown haired man to turn towards him, his own expression something akin to boredom. "Happy with yourself?" Jesse asked, a spark of anger spiraling into his gaze "you've ruined everything" when Ivor didn't say anything, only squeezed his hands into fists despite the sharp pain that caused, Jesse continued "Don't pretend you don't know, thief" he spat out the last word like it was a curse "You took my most valuable potion and what should have been my moment of triumph!"

Ivor couldn't hold himself back any longer. He lunged for the robe wearing man, fists first, and managed to get in quite a few good blows before Magnus and Harper pulled him back. "Don't waste your energy on this jerk" Magnus said "We've got to go find Gabriel!"

Jesse, who had been knocked to the ground, sat up, wiping the blood from his nose with a wince. "The boy" he said, quickly turning all heads towards him "I saw him"

"What?" Harper said, her gray eyes full of hope, worry, and dread.

Jesse used his hand to push his hair out of his face, and his fingers to try and wipe the blood out of his hair as he said "As I was running towards the portal, I passed him. He was running in the opposite direction" seemingly deciding he'd done all he could, he folded his hands behind his back. "Such bravery" Jesse said, turning and walking to the edge of the cliff they were standing on. "Of course, there is a fine line between bravery, and stupidity" he turned around to face them again "And your friend has crossed it"

Ivor considered knocking Jesse off the cliff. He probably would have too, if Magnus didn't have his right arm pinned behind his back. Unable to move, Ivor settled for snapping "You're a coward"

Jesse hummed thoughtfully "Perhaps" he said "But I survived, and that's what counts"

"There's more to life than just survival" Ivor said, dark blue eyes narrow.

"But without survival, there is no life" Jesse countered, a small smirk on his face.

Walking away from the ledge, much to the annoyance of Ivor who had just been released by Magnus, Jesse walked towards a tunnel built out of the red block with the glowing block lighting it up. Not that there was much darkness in the area what with all the lava, but it did cast a warm glow into the tunnel. "Through that tunnel is a network of minecarts built by the Order of the Stone. It's your only way out"

After a few minutes of internal debate, Magnus said "We should go that way" Harper nodded in agreement "Time's wasting, let's go"

"What about you?" Ivor asked, casting suspicious looks at Jesse. Jesse arched a brow "what about me?"

"How will you get out of here? Because there is no way you are coming with us"

Jesse chuckled "I'll use my imagination."

Before any more words could be exchanged, a strange sound, almost like a cat meowing or a child crying echoed through the red dimension.

"What was that?" Magnus asked nervously, arms drawing closer to his inventory bag out of instinct.

"I would wish you luck" Jesse said, taking a few steps backwards "But luck won't carry you through the Nether. You have my sympathies" with those final words, he selected a lavender potion from his bag and drunk it. Vanishing instantly, the only sign of him being soft gray swirls that floated from where he had last stood, before those too vanished, and the only sign of his ever being there, the now-empty bottle, clattered to the ground, melting partially as it came in contact with the heat.

The cry echoed through the Nether again, and when the friends turned to face the direction it had come from, the cliff Jesse had been standing at only seconds before, they saw a white beast, bigger than anything they had ever seen before, floating up from the darkness. The creature, a Ghast, made another noise, though this one seemed angrier, and its mouth and eyes opened in unison, revealing blood red eyes.

"Let's get out of here!" Magnus shouted, taking off for the tunnel. Ellegaard and Harper were close behind, and Ivor scooped up Reuben before chasing after them. This turned out to be a good idea, for as they ran, the sound of something exploding rang behind them.

Charging through the tunnel, which was thankfully too small for the Ghast to fit into, the friends turned a corner and found a small hill with six minecarts lying on rails.

"This must be what Jesse was talking about" Ellegaard said, her eyes landing immediately on the powered rails that were glowing a bright red.

Ivor jumped as another explosion echoed through the tunnel, this one sounding much closer, and resulting in fire shooting to the corner and catching some of the red block on fire. "Alright, everyone in!" Ivor said, setting Reuben into the front cart, and hopped into the one just behind that. "Hold on!" Ellegaard said, smacking her palm against a button that was next to the track as soon as everyone was in. .

With a low rumble, the carts began to move forwards, at a nice steady pace provided by the spacing of the powered rails.


	10. The Temple of the Order

The minecart ride definitely was not the funnest thing Ivor had ever done. They had gotten split up, reunited, and split up again roughly four times, Ivor eneded up having to fight off two different Ghasts, and Reuben now had an arrow sticking out of his wool courtesy of a Skeleton that had somehow ended up riding next to them.

"Can you throw up like...inside your body?" Ivor groaned, one hand over his stomach where his earlier meal of baked potatoes was threatening to come shooting back up.

"Uh-huh" Ellegaard said, half jumping half rolling out of the minecart and onto the platform they had stopped at "I know, because I just did...about five times"

Kneeling down next to Reuben, Ivor pulled out the arrow and pressed his hand on the darkened patch of black fur. When he pulled his hand away it was covered in blood, but Reuben didn't seem to be bleeding anymore. Straightening, Ivor saw that the others were already investigating the circle of cobblestone and obsidian that they were now standing on. Wiping his bloody hand on one of the extra pieces of wool in his inventory, Ivor muttered "This place is amazing"

Tossing the now red wool into a fire that was burning near the circle, Ivor walked closer to Ellegaard, who was standing in the middle of the circle. "All of the tracks converge on this point" she said, catching Ivor's gaze "You can probably get anywhere in the world from here"

Ivor nodded his head towards the, thankfully lit, portal that stood directly opposite the track they had just gotten off of. "That must be the portal to the Order's temple" he said "I mean, why else would it be here?"

Magnus grinned. He seemed to be the only one not shaken up by the roller coaster masquerading as a train system. "Then that's our way outta here, let's go!" he said, walking towards the portal. "It must lead back to the surface" Ellegaard said thoughtfully. Harper frowned and said "The surface, which is where that monster is" At her words, Magnus froze, one leg still lifted to take him closer to the obsidian frame.

"She's right" Ivor said "We have no idea what we'll be walking in to"

Magnus slowly lowered his foot back down so that it was next to the other. When there was silence for a few minutes, with him still being the closest, Harper said quietly "Thanks for being so brave Magnus" her tone wasn't teasing, though her words were slightly, and Ivor arched a brow at her.

"Alright" Magnus said, though it seemed like he was talking more to himself than to any of the others. "I'm gonna go" he said, taking a slow, nervous step forwards "I'm going" he looked over his shoulders at the others, and Reuben tilted his head, letting out a little bleat.

Ivor sighed "I'll go" he said, walking around the lithe male. "That's not what I was saying" Magnus said weakly in a horrible attempt to protest. "I'm going." Ivor said, his eyes narrow. Magnus shrugged, and fought to keep a grateful grin off of his face "If you absolutely insist"

Ivor walked forwards until he was standing directly in front of the swirling purple mist "See you on the other side" he said, before walking into the portal.

* * *

Whatever Ivor might have been expecting on the other side of the portal, a small pond underneath a cliff definitely was not it. Wading through the water to try and catch some clues about where in the world he was, the first thing Ivor noticed was the reflection of the moon on the water. The sudden splash of water that caused ripples to shoot out caused Ivor to whirl around, hand already half-way into his bag to grab his sword.

Yelping as he came face to face with a zombie, Ivor grabbed his sword handle from inside his bag and lashed out with it, causing the zombie to flash red and groan. Hacking away at the green-skinned beast as fast as he possibly could, Ivor was relieved when the beast poofed into smoke and a piece of rotten flesh began to float at the top of the water.

With a startled yelp, Magnus emerged from the portal and into the pond. Spotting Ivor's still drawn sword, the bald teen tilted his head and arched a brow. "There was a zombie" Ivor muttered, placing the weapon back in his bag and wading towards the small dirt ledge on the only side of the cave thatdidn't have a roof.

"Oh...is it dead?" Magnus asked, as he waded towards Ivor. "Well...dead-dead?" he added as an afterthought as the portal began to shimmer, signalling that one of the others was about to arrive. "Yeah" Ivor said absentmindedly, heaving himself onto the dirt. The second he was on dry land, he spotted stairs leading upwards. "Hey guys" he called into the water "I found some stairs, and this dirt has been made into path" he stomped on the yellow/brown covering that separated the dirt from the grass. "I'm guessing we're close"

Once they were all out of the Nether, and onto dry land, the five climbed the stairs and found themselves in a clearing, at the edge of an oak forest. "Where are we?" Ellegaard asked. Ivor frowned, his gaze locked onto a zombie that was lurching along a cliff. They didn't seem to be in its range yet, but any wrong moves and it would be on them. "In the dark, in the middle of nowhere" he heard Magnus say.

"Maybe we should bed down for the night?" Harper said, licking her lips nervously as she watched a spider crawl along the same cliff the zombie was walking on. "It's dangerous to be out when its this dark"

"I thought we were headed for a temple" Magnus said, confusion thick in his voice.

"We're looking for a giant building" Ellegaard said, looking around as though she was trying to find a source of light "You'd think it would be a bit more obvious."

Harper hummed thoughtfully "Jesse said-"

"Oh 'Jesse said'" Magnus interrupted, scowling at the raven haired woman "Well then, maybe this is the temple" he waved his hand at the cavern they had just emerged from. "Magnus" Ellegaard said scoldingly, crossing her arms.

"We have to build a shelter" Ivor said. Harper frowned "Isn't that what I..." she sighed "never mind"

Ellegaard nodded to Ivor "You're right" causing a small frown from Harper to be sent her way. Thankfully the redstone specialist didn't see it, and she continued "We should hurry. I say we build a tree house"

"That'll take forever" Magnus objected "And we'll be exposed while we do it" Magnus pointed at the ground "Everything we need for shelter is right at our feet, I say we build a quick and dirty hut."

Ellegaard rolled her eyes "In a hut, we won't know what's coming until it's knocking on our door"

Magnus let out a small whine "But a treehouse is gonna be spider-town." he shuddered "I hate spiders"

Ivor rubbed the area between his eyes "We'll do both" he said, earning confused looks from Magnus, Ellegaard, and Harper. "Pick a small tree, build a tree-house frame, cover it in dirt." Ivor elaborated "That way we'll be high up enough monsters can't get us, but also protected from the elements. And if its enclosed, Spiders can't get in, even if they manage to climb it."

* * *

The moon was high in the sky by the time they were done. It didn't look like a tree-house, or a dirt hut. It looked more like the Admin, a myth from childrens stories, had just summoned oak planks and dirt, and thrown them together in a hodge-podge shelter.

"Well..." Ellegaard muttered once they were inside "At least we're sheltered...I guess" Magnus rolled his eyes "It's over, we're done...and when this is over, we are never talking about this again" Harper, who had her head tilted back to look at the dirt and wood ceiling, said "It's not that bad, maybe if we had done like...a multi-level thing? I mean it's too late now obviously but...you know what..never mind. This is...this is cool" she settled down against one wall and leaned against it, letting out a small sigh.

Magnus began rooting around in his bag, presumably looking for something they could burn since the oak log that was surrounded by stone was just about to die out, and he let out a gasp "Oh man!"

"What?" Ellegaard asked, looking slightly concerned. The lightning in the room wasn't all that good since they only had enough coal to make four torches, two of which were outside lighting up the area so that monsters couldn't spawn in the immediate area. They were all huddled together in a fairly small space though, so the chances of anything spawning, even a baby zombie, were really low, but as you might be able to imagine, they were still all a little jumpy.

Magnus pulled something out of his bag and held them up, beaming "I have cookies"

"One for me, one for Ellie, one for Jesse" Magnus said, handing out the cookies "And one for Reuben!" he set the final cookie at Reuben's hooves, and the lamb bleated happily, wagging his tail as he ducked his head down to chew on the chocolate chip cookie.

Ivor raised his cookie to his mouth, but lowered it as he caught sight of Harper, who was staring down at her lap sadly. "Sorry Harper" Magnus said "I've only got four" Harper let out a soft laugh "It's fine, I'll get something in the morning. I'm not even that hungry anyways"

Ivor looked down at his cookie, sighed, and got to his feet. Walking over to Harper, he set the cookie gently in her hands "Take it" he said quickly, before shuffling back to his seat next to Reuben before the gray eyed girl could say anything. "I...no, I can't-" Harper stammered, but Ivor just gave her a small smile, and she sighed "Thank you, Ivor"

Magnus had a scowl on his face as he said "That was for you Ivor, not her" Ivor's dark blue gaze slid sideways and he said simply "Magnus, I think I can do whatever I want with my cookie thank you very much" Magnus crossed his arms and huffed.

They all sat in silence for a while, until Ellegaard said softly, her dark amber gaze focused in on Harper "If you had to, would you rather fight a hundred chicken sized zombies, or ten zombie sized chickens?" Ivor smiled slightly "Choose wisely" he said wryly.

Harper chuckled and said "That's ah...that's a good one. Let me think"

"How can you guys joke at a time like this?" Magnus demanded. Ivor turned to see the bald teen staring at them with a mixture of fury, sadness, and confusion. "Gabriel is still out there, he's all by himself. There's nothing funny about that"

"Magnus" Ivor said calmingly "I don't think Gabriel would mind. In fact, I'll bet you he would want us to keep our spirits high"

"If I were him" Magnus began to protest, before he faltered and muttered "I'd...I don't...I don't know" Magnus sighed "It just feels wrong"

"Alright" Harper said, brushing some raven strands out of her face. "We should probably get some rest" her gray eyes focused on the fire as she spoke "We gotta start looking for this temple as early as we can. Now, my guess is, if we split at the portal and kind of split up-"

"Um, what do you think you're doing?" Magnus interrupted, arching a brow as he stared at Harper.

Harper blinked, startled. "Did I do something to you?" she asked, genuinely confused. "I'd really like to know because you're getting on my case for what seems like no reason?"

"She's just trying to help" Ivor said, his eyes narrow as he watched Magnus. Magnus, who crossed his arms and shifted his gaze so that he was watching Ivor instead.

"I'm sorry Ivor, but I ain't gonna sit here and listen to this guy telling us what's what" Magnus growled

"I'm just trying to get ready for tomorrow" Harper said.

"You're the only one wearing that stupid logo" Magnus snapped, pointing to the crossed picks and sword on Harper's outfit. "Don't tell us what to do"

Harper shot to her feet, hands curled into balls "Take. that. back" she growled, eyes narrow

"Can't" Magnus said "Wouldn't"

"I wear this symbol because I know how to build" Harper growled through gritted teeth "That doesn't mean I don't know how to break things"

"Your threats don't scare me" Manus said, taking a menacing step forwards "now that we know how you really are"

"Ivor, your friend is way out of line" Harper said, without taking her gaze away from Magnus "I wasn't going to say anything, but I can only take so much"

Ivor kept his dark blue eyes focused on the fire. Knowing if he lifted them to look at either of them, then someone would take it the wrong way "Look" he said "Its been a long day, we're all tired. Let's just drop it"

"But Ivor-" Magnus began to protest. Ivor lifted his head and glared at Magnus, who clenched his hands into fists as Ivor snarled "Drop. it"

Magnus huffed, and sat down as far away from Harper as he could manage.

Harper, who was still on her feet, walked over to Ivor and crouched down."Look...I've caused enough damage here, maybe..." she sighed "I think it would be best if I left. I can scout around, and meet up with you later on at the temple."

Ivor shook his head "It's dark not to mention dangerous. You aren't going anywhere"

Harper gave Ivor an odd look, then smiled slightly "Thanks Ivor" walking back to her place, she sat down.

They all sat in silence for a while, before Harper turned to Ellegaard "Zombie sized chickens, that's what I would fight"

Ellegaard tilted her head "Oh? Why's that?"

Harper chuckled slightly "Because I'm starving"

* * *

The next morning, the ground was still fairly wet from the rainstorm that had started up sometime in the middle of the night and stopped early morning.

The group had disassembled part of the structure, so that they had blocks in their inventory. Ivor and Reuben were taking lead, while Ellegaard and Magnus walked next to eachother in the back, Harper in between.

Ivor could hear Harper speeding up slightly, so he was expecting her in his peripheral vision as she said "I'm really sorry about...everything that happened last night" she chuckled slightly "I'm really more embarrassed than anything else"

Ivor smiled at her, and the group continued walking in silence

* * *

"Hey!" Harper called. She had climbed up onto a small hill for a better view, and was calling down to the others who were waiting. "There's something over there, some sort of building"

"Let's get a closer look" Ivor said, carrying Reuben up the slope with Magnus and Ellegaard close behind.

The building that came into sight was mostly white with stained glass, as well as with a mostly collapsed roof.

"Let's head in" Ivor said "But be careful everyone"

* * *

Ivor decided that dispensers were not on his list of favorite blocks.

They had just barely gotten through a tunnel that had been filled with arrow shooting dispensers, that had been activated when they had run from a creeper.

The creeper had been shot first, and then using a bow and arrow made from spare blocks Ivor had shot the aggravating button on the floor that had started everything.

Now, the Order of the Lamb was inside a huge, massive library.

As the others split up, Ivor was drawn to an enchantment table, that had a closed book lying on its obsidian base. "Hey guys" he said, reading the title "Come listen to this"

Picking up the book, Ivor began to read

_"These five friends, together, would give so much to gain their rightful place as five heroes.  
_

_They would author their own end._

_They...would slay a dragon"_

On the final page was a picture of the Order of the Stone standing over the corpse of a dragon. But there was another figure in the image, a long haired male with potions hanging from his belt.

"Is that-" Harper began, but Ellegaard cut her off "Jesse was a member of the order of the stone? The stories never mentioned him"

"This is so crazy" Harper said, pressing her palms against the sides of her head.

Ivor nodded slowly "Well, now we know why Jesse was so upset with Petra."

"They lied to us" Ellegaard said "The Order lied to the whole world!"

* * *

A few minutes and absolutely zero answers later, the Order of the Lamb was on an upper level, one that had taken the brute of the elements more than the rest of the temple combined.

"This must have been where they met" Ellegaard said softly "Look, there's a map" she nodded to a battered map of the world hanging on the wall.

"So where are they then?" Magnus insisted, crossing his arms impatiently.

"Petra told me that once we find the temple, the amulet will show us" Ivor said. "Look around, see if there's anything that can show us what to do with it"

* * *

Ivor decided he officially hated levers.

It took him roughly five minutes to figure out the stupid lever system, before a light finally shone through the amulet which he had placed on a pedestal, and a red and green light shot out of the amulet and began shining onto the map.

"This is amazing!" Ellegaard said "The amount of engineering this must have taken..." she shook her head, unable to finish.

"This is what Petra wanted to find" Ivor said, realization dawning on him "It's the Order, it's showing us where they are right now!"

Magnus frowned "But...there are only two lights. Does that mean there are only two members of the order left?"

Harper tilted her head back slightly "Petra said Lukas was missing...that leaves Axel and Olivia"

"Let's head out!" Ivor said, turning towards the stairway to leave, but Harper stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not going with you guys" the raven haired woman said. "I have to stay here, if I know Gabriel, then he's doing everything he can to find us. He's still out there. He has to be"

Ivor frowned "But we need your help" he tried "You should come with us"

Harper shook her head, a soft smile on her face "You don't need me" she said "This is where I should be. If there's even a chance that he's still alive...I need to be here"

She looked around "Besides, I'm going to try and reinforce this place before nightfall, if one of you could hand back and help me.?"

"Sounds like Elie will have you covered while me and Ivor go and grab Axel!" Magnus said, a grin on his face.

"grab Axel?" Ellegaard said, eyes wide "You really think that's how its going to go? We need Olivia, she's the worlds best Redstone Engineer, she'll figure out a way to stop that thing"

"We're trying to destroy it!" Magnus protested "When it comes to destruction, Axel is the master!"

"Alright you guys that's enough" Ivor said "Magnus is right, we need to destroy the Wither. We're going after Axel. Ellegaard, stay here and help Harper"

Ellegaard huffed, but said "Alright, but I'm only doing this for Gabriel."

"uh guys?" Harper said. Ivor turned towards her and paled, seeing what she was seeing.

"Please hurry"

In the distance, the witherstorm let out a screech.


	11. !BoOmtoWn!

_Heroes can come from unlikely beginning, and old friendships can lead to bitter rivalries_

_When the world is in danger, fate calls on the ordinary to do extra-ordinary deeds_

_But the question remains..._

_...will it be enough to save the world_

"WHOOOOOO-OOOOOO!"

The sound of a hyper-active teenager shouting rang through the entire Nether, causing Blaze-men halfway across the world to burst into startled flames.

Magnus was sitting in the third minecart, with Ivor in front of him and Reuben in front. Reaching up and rubbing at his ears, Ivor turned and glared at Magnus. Magnus, who caught Ivor's look, slumped slightly "Oh come on Ivor, you can't seriously not be having fun right now. I mean, sure the world's in danger, but this is our chance to be heroes!" the bald teen threw his arms into the air and let out another ear-drum bursting whoop.

"Just don't lose track of why we're here" Ivor said, settling back into place and reaching out to slide one hand along Reuben's curly fur. "If we don't get the Order back together, the Witherstorm is going to eat everything"

Though he could no longer see him, Ivor knew Magnus's hands were lowering and the grin was falling off of his face.

Taking a deep breath, Ivor sighed, and then added "Which means that we need to get Axel on our side as soon as freaking possible"

A few moments of silence, before Magnus spoke, the smiled evident in his voice "You're right. We're gonna find Axel, bring him back, and he'll totally know how to blow that thing sky high!" Ivor turned his head back enough to give Magnus a small smile, before a noise that was becoming far too familiar for Ivor's liking shot through the surrounding area.

"Uh...Ivor" Magnus said slowly, eyes wide as he tilted his head back to stare at something both in front of and above them. Ivor turned his head in time to see the Ghast, just before it shot it's fireball and knocked the minecarts off of the track.

Thankfully, they were over land and not over a lava lake like they had been a few minutes ago, but it was still a very jarring sensation, and both humans flashed red as their skin came abruptly into contact with the red block that Harper had told them was Netherack. Apparently, it could burn forever, and as such generated its own heat in order to feed fire whenever it was lit.

Stumbling to his feet, Ivor's hands, which had finally healed, were once again burnt, and Magnus had a rather nasty burn along the side of his face. A couple of minutes in the normal world should heal it though, so he wasn't all that worried. At most it would be there for an hour once they left the Nether.

As he carefully made his way over to Reuben who's white hind hoof was singed, Ivor heard the Ghast let out another one of its warning crys again, and he barely had enough time to shout "HIDE!" and duck behind a strange red and white block before a fireball blew up the place where he had just been standing.

"Why does it hate us so much?" Magnus yelped, patting out his green hoodie which was smoldering on the side.

Ivor didn't hear his question, his eyes were glued to the track, where the minecarts were most definitely not. Looking around, Ivor's already pale skin paled further as he realized that the minecarts were about to fall off of the mountain they were standing on.

"Magnus, the minecarts!" Ivor said, whirling around to face his friend, while pointing at where the iron carts were starting to slip slightly. Magnus nodded, and made a break for the minecarts. "Keep the ghast busy!" he called over his shoulder as he grabbed onto the first...or third minecart.

Ivor pulled out his stone sword, right as the ghast shot a fireball that destroyed his small cover. Taking a deep breath, Ivor swung his sword, and grinned as it reflected the fireball the monster had just shot right back at it. The beast flashed red, and let out a furious cry. Switching to the bow and arrow he had crafted back at the Order's crazy hall of death, Ivor ran sideways to avoid another fireball and quickly shot an arrow at the Ghast.

The monster once again flashed red, but this time it exploded into dust, a small white teardrop falling from where it had been floating, and landing on the Netherack. While Magnus finished putting the minecarts back on the track, Ivor walked over to it and picked it up, holding it up to look at in the light of the lava and glowstone.

"Ivor!" Magnus called, and the raven haired teen quickly tucked the tear into his bag. Scooping up Reuben, and wincing as his fur rubbed on the burns, Ivor set Reuben in the first cart, and jumped into the one behind it. Magnus gave the carts a running start, and jumped in right before they hit the next powered rail.

* * *

The minecarts came to a stop in front of a small platform made of cobblestone, with a sign proudly displaying '!BoOmtoWn!' in rainbow colors. A little ways past the sign, was the Nether portal that led to Boomtown. Getting out of the carts, Magnus rubbed the back of his head as he said "I liked it when you went first last time. Maybe you should take this one again?"

Ivor rolled his eyes slightly, but he led the way into the purple mist.

As he stood there, waiting for the magic to teleport him, he could have sworn he heard an explosion on the other end.

* * *

The instant Ivor came out of the portal on the other side, he crashed to the ground. Flashing red, Ivor groaned, and rolled onto his back. The portal was part of a massive floating sign that read Boomtown. A small shimmer was the only warning Ivor got that Magnus and Reuben were coming through, and before he could move Ivor was flattened underneath Magnus. Reuben landed on top of Magnus, and hopped to the ground, bleating angrily at Magnus until the bald male rolled off of Ivor.

"Owwwwwwwwww"

* * *

The two friends snuck through the charred streets of Boomtown, hugging the walls and making as little noise as possible to avoid drawing attention from the town's inhabitants. "Just be careful alright?" Ivor hissed, mostly to Magnus although partially to Reuben as well. He had already had one close shave with someone who wanted to cook the little sheep, he didn't want to run into any more mutton enthusiasts.

Something gave way underneath his feet, and Ivor froze. Looking downwards, he discovered that he had stepped on a wire, which was hooked up to tripwire hooks.

A sharp hissing sound was all the warning they got, before the ground below them exploded, propelling the three of them upwards, and causing them to land with jarring flashes of red. Ivor got to his feet, only to be knocked back down by a second explosion right in front of him. Thankfully this one wasn't close enough to cause any damage, but the shockwave sent someone on the other end of the street flying.

Heaving Magnus to his feet, Ivor led the way and the three of them took off running, Reuben bleating shrilly as an explosion caused dirt to spray all over his fur, making him look more like a black and brown sheep than a black and white one.

Skidding into an alleyway to avoid a very insane looking person holding eggs, Ivor looked up to find someone holding white flashing TNT. "Why didn't I pick Olivia" Ivor groaned, running back out the way he had come only to be smacked in the chest with an egg, which hatched into a baby chicken. Meeting back up with Magnus, Ivor let Reuben lead the way behind a partially destroyed building.

"Whoah..." Magnus breathed, watching the destruction through a gap in the wall "Utter chaos!" a grin split his face as Ivor looked over some banners with various logos on them "It's like...I've finally come home" as Ivor rolled his eyes and turned to investigate a cactus Magnus added "These are my people"

Ivor turned to face his friend "Magnus, these people are insane!"

"You're being too small-minded" Magnus countered, waving his hand dismissively. "This is awesome"

"You'd think a poisonous potato was awesome if it had TNT strapped to it" Ivor snapped, only to pale as a wicked grin split Magnus's face like an angry enderman "No." he said quickly "just...no"

Magnus pouted, and started to protest, but Ivor's attention was drawn away by the fact that his inventory bag was glowing. Reaching into his bag, Ivor pulled out the amulet Petra had given him. The green gemstone was glowing brightly, the red one had a slight glow but you had to squint to see it, and the other three were as dim as a zombie's brain.

"Dude, it's freaking glowing" Magnus said, as though it weren't obvious. Ivor rolled his eyes, and began waving the amulet through the air. "Look" he said "It glows brighter when I move it"

Ivor waved the amulet slowly, so that he could see the glow grow brighter and dimmer, and locked in on an obsidian spire. "Ding ding ding" he said "I'll bet you a gold nugget that's where Axel is"

Reuben let out a nervous bleat, but before Ivor could see what was wrong, a new voice rang through the air.

"Hey there new people"

Ivor and Magnus jumped and whirled around to face a young girl, around fourteen or fifteen with bright pink hair that was in pigtails. She emerged from behind the midnight blue banner with a pink Ghast Tear on it. The same logo was on her shirt, and Ivor had a feeling it meant she was part of whatever group the banner symbolized. That or a fan, but he had a feeling it was the first one.

The girl had black face-paint surrounding her dark brown eyes, and it flickered across her face as she raised a brow and offered a smile. "You...you ah" she coughed "You said you know where Axel is?" her smile turned into a shark grin as she made some sort of symbol with her hand "All of the griefers here in Boomtown want to find Axel you see"

As she spoke, more people began emerging from the buildings and craters.

"Why do you want to know so badly?" Ivor asked, gripping the amulet so tight his knuckles turned white. He knew he should put it into his inventory, the magical bag would keep anyone from taking it unless he was dead. But if he put it in his bag, he was afraid they would take that as an excuse to kill him, so he kept it out in the open.

"No reason" the girl said with a small humm.

Three of the griefers began to advance slowly. One wore the same insignia as the first, but the other two wore blood red sweaters with rips revealing the pitch black undershirt, their symbol was a silver egg that looked much too big to have come from a chicken.

"Ivor?" Magnus muttered nervously, eying the green haired male in the sweater.

"Bunch of scavengers!" the girl shouted, glaring at the two in sweaters, as well as pretty much anyone that didn't have the Ghast Tear symbol "These noobs are mine!"

"Look" Ivor said, gritting his teeth slightly "We just need this to find Magnus so that we can-"

"Hey" a griefer in a pale blue shirt with a lightning bolt slashing across it interrupted "We all want to find Magnus friend-o, so...just give me the amulet, and I'll tell him you said hi"

Before Ivor could say anything in response, the pink haired girl shot forwards, wrestled the amulet out of his hands and took off.

"Get back here with that!" Magnus shouted, taking off after her. Ivor followed, but only after making sure Reuben was still at his side. He didn't trust the griefers not to mistake his pet, and best friend, for dinner.

"Oh mighty Axel" the girl said, now standing on the rooftop of a mostly collapsed building, holding the amulet towards the obsidian tower. "I have for you this offering-"

Before she could finish, a fishing pole's lead latched onto the amulet and yanked the item back towards the rod's holder, a griefer in a hideous green and orange jumpsuit. "NO!" the girl shouted, as the other griefer ran off with a cackle.

The pink haired girl took off after the griefer with the fishing pole, and Magnus, Ivor, and Reuben were close behind.

* * *

Ivor, Magnus, and Reuben finally caught up to the green and orange wearing griefer, who was doubled over laughing with the pink haired griefer "Buncha noobs!" the girl cackled, wiping tears from her eyes "They'll be chasing after the Cyclones all day!"

Ivor wanted to sneak up on the two and jump them, but the stick cracking loudly underneath Magnus's foot had other plans. The griefer team looked up, eyes widening at the sight of Ivor, Magnus, and a lamb, and took off running in separate directions. "I'll take the thief, you take the guy with the fishing pole!" Ivor said quickly Magnus nodded "Got it!"

* * *

"Hey, you know what time of year is best to visit Boomtown?" Ivor jumped slightly as the pink haired girl poked her head out of a window in the house she was hiding in. Ivor rolled his eyes "Let me guess, fall" he said, neatly sidling from the ladder he was climbing to some vines growing up the cobblestone to avoid the TNT the girl had dropped.

"Nope!" the girl said, as though it was a perfectly normal thing, to have a conversation while fighting "Winter, but good guess!"

* * *

By the time he got close enough to shout at the girl again, Magnus had joined back up, having hit a dead end with the fishing pole guy. "You guys remind me of a song I had stuck in my head once" the girl called over her shoulder. "I just couldn't get it to go away!" as she ran by a button, she smacked it, causing pistons to fire and TNT to shoot out of dispensers, already flashing white.

Dodging it, Ivor and Magnus grew quiet as they climbed up the tower. Reuben was making his way up using some half slabs, but Ivor and Magnus were crawling up a mismatched patch of ladders and vines.

"Okay little amulet" the girl said, completely unaware of the males' presence "Show me the way! Of course I'm not sure what I'll do once I get there, but that's future Nohr's problem"

"Give. that. back" Ivor snarled, his stone sword drawn and pressing into Nohr's back. Nohr jumped in surprise, and the amulet went flying

"HA!" rang yet another new voice "See, what did I tell you about working together?" Ivor ducked down, and crawled to the edge of the roof he was standing on, looking down over one of the red hoodie wearing guys talking to a girl with the ghast tear logo and eyeball scorching green pigtails. "What?" the girl said "But I'm the one who said we should work together. Now, give it here!" she reached for the amulet, and grabbed onto it. The two griefers began to do some form of tug-of-war, before Ivor crawled down the vines on the other side and grabbed the amulet from them, startling them into letting it go.

Climbing back up, Ivor realized for the first time just how close they were to the obsidian spire, and how brightly the green gem was glowing. "Magnus!" he called "Axel is somewhere in there, we're close!"

"Then quick!" Magnus called back. He was on the other side of a TNT crater, with Reuben stomping his hooves angrily at his side. "Toss me the amulet!"

Ivor made a sort of half groan, and threw the item over to his friend "Don't lose it" he warned, before turning around to face the griefers climbing up after him.

* * *

"Ivor you made it!" Magnus said with a grin.

"Don't sound so surprised" Ivor said, a small grin on his face as well. He couldn't really help it, be around Magnus long enough and you'll be smiling about something. "Do you have the amulet?" he asked, feeling a rush of relief flow over him when Magnus pulled the item out of his bag, the green gem glowing so bright it could probably keep monsters from spawning at night.

"Course I do!" Magnus chirped, handing it to Ivor "Me and the lamb totally rocked it"

Ivor decided not to say anything about the arrow sticking out of Magnus's calf as he accepted the amulet.

"Axel, here we come!"

 


	12. Grief Off!

Pushing open the dark oak doors that led into the heart of the spire, Ivor held up the amulet, using it to light the pitch black room. "Isn't Axel worried about mobs?" Ivor muttered, walking further into the room. Or at least, he tried to. He barely walked three blocks before he ended up with his hands on a wall. "What the-" Magnus began, before the floor opened out underneath them, and dropped the three friends into darkness.

* * *

It only took about ten seconds to hit the obsidian ground and flash red, but to Ivor it felt like a year had passed. "Owwwwww" he groaned. Magnus landed a half-second later, belly-flopping onto the black block, and Reuben fell last. Landing on Magnus's back, the lamb was the only one not to flash red, and he jumped from Magnus's back to Ivor's, causing the amulet to go flying from his grip.

Ivor got to his feet, and looked around. He and Magnus were standing at the edge of a two-block wide bridge that spanned over a lava lake, and the amulet had rolled, all the way to the other side. Sighing, Ivor began to walk across the bridge, Reuben and Magnus right on his heels.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps not their own echoed through the room, and the group of three froze.

"You are completely surrounded by hundreds of hidden death traps!" a voice called. Ivor looked up towards its origin, and found himself facing a muscled man wearing some sort of forest green armor. The man had shaggy black hair that fell over his unibrow.

Pulling one of many levers on the wall next to him, the man added "One step closer, and KABOOM!"

The two sand blocks in front of Ivor were pushed upwards by levers, revealing TNT.

Ivor let out a yell of surprise, stumbling backwards. He would have fallen into the lava below, had Magnus not grabbed hold of him.

As he got his balance back, Ivor watched as the man walked over to the amulet, and picked it up. The green gem was now glowing brighter than the lava that surrounded them, casting a green glow over everything.

"It's Axel!" Magnus hissed into Ivor's ear, all but squealing "We totally got caught by Axel!" Ivor shot him a glare, and Magnus's face fell "Uh...I think we're gonna die now"

"Did you really think you could sneak up on me?" Axel asked, a skeptical look on his face as he carried the amulet back to the wall of levers. "You are the worst griefers, I have ever seen" he waved his free hand at Reuben "I mean come on, a lamb? Why would you think that's stealthy?" Reuben bleated angrily, and lowered his head, aiming his horns at Axel as he hopped up and down bleating.

"We're here to ask for your help" Ivor interrupted quickly

Axel tilted his head and said "Riiiiiiiiight. So you're not a couple of griefers here to catch me unawares. Because..." he chuckled "That one" Axel nodded towards Magnus "He's got griefer written all over him"

Magnus's eyes practically had stars in them as he managed to get out "You have no idea how much that means to me!"

"No" Ivor said, rushing to cover up Magnus's words "No no, him? Magnus is as harmless as they get. I know he looks like a griefer, but that's where it stops, looks! Completely harmless!"

Magnus groaned, but thankfully Axel didn't seem to notice. He also didn't seem to buy Ivor's words "Riiiiight" he said again. Looking over the levers, Axel said "So...'not griefers' How did you find me? You working with someone? Or maybe you bribed another griefer?"

"Petra sent us" Ivor said, figuring mentioning the warrior would be the best way to get the green-clothed man on their side.

"Petra?" Axel scoffed "You're seriously telling me that you're buddy-buddy with Petra?" he lifted his hand, and set it on a lever, not pressing it just yet "Do you have any idea how many times people tell me that one? This is all sounding pretty weird"

Axel finally pressed the lever, and the TNT went flying into lava. Ivor took a hesitant step forwards, before all out running along the bridge, only to be stopped by yet another lever pull, which summoned more TNT in front of him.

"Who are you really?" Axel demanded, crossing his arms "Why are you here? I want answers, and I want them now"

Ivor glanced back at Magnus, who shrugged "Come on now" Axel said "Just give it to me straight"

"The world is being destroyed" Ivor said, looking Axel right in the man's emerald eyes.

Axel blinked, and looked down at the amulet in his hands, more specifically, at the now pulsing green gem. Ivor thought that the red gem middle blue gem seemed to be glowing slightly, but it was hard to tell underneath the sea of green.

"You have me intrigued" Axel said slowly "Go on" He pulled another lever, and once again the TNT went flying into lava, melting with a sharp, creeper like hiss.

Ivor, Magnus, and Reuben slowly began cross the bridge again. "There's a huge monster eating the world and nothing can stop it" Ivor said "Petra told us to reunite the Order of the Stone. Axel, you have to come with us, you may very well be our only hope."

Axel pulled another lever, and the final two blocks of the bridge were pushed up, revealing TNT "Give me one reason why, for even a second, I should come with you" as Ivor thought, Axel continued "I'm the ruler of this place, I keep the disorder!"

"You are supposed to be a hero Axel" Ivor said, once again looking directly into Axel's eyes as he spoke "And right now, the world needs a hero. You can come with us, and help stop this disaster"

Axel held Ivor's gaze silently for a few minutes, before turning away, and walking towards a window made of black stained glass, carefully hidden from the outside. "All this...stuff you just told me" Axel said, turning his head to look at Ivor "You expect me to just take your word for it? Two strangers with wild stories and nothing to show for it, except an amulet that isn't theirs"

"Are you that paranoid?" Ivor asked, tilting his head slightly and patting Reuben's head as the lamb padded closer for comfort "Do you really not trust anyone?"

"That's how I've survived this long" Axel said quietly, in a voice barely more than a whisper.

"Please...just trust me this once then" Ivor said "Just for one minute...trust us, trust me"

Axel was silent for a few minutes, and during that time, Ivor was afraid they were going to be sent away. Finally, he said "I mean, the alternative is we go and get Olivia to help us"

That got a reaction out of Axel, and the black haired male turned around "Okay, okay, you sold me" he sounded kind of grumpy about that, but at the same time like he had just been looking for an excuse to join them. "I'm in" he walked over to his wall of levers, and pulled one final one, sending the last set of TNT flying.

Walking up to Ivor, Magnus, and Reuben, Axel said "There's just one problem. See...I can't exactly just stroll on out of here"

"What are you talking about?" Magnus asked, a brow arched "You're  _Axel_!"

Axel walked past them on the bridge, which was kind of a tight fit since he was rather on the large side "Well, I don't know if you've noticed" he said, in the voice one uses to talk to a two year old "But this place is kinda full of griefers"

Magnus blinked, clearly not following where Axel was going with that "But...that's kinda awesome, right?"

"No!" Axel said, reaching the end of the bridge and turned around to face them "See...you've heard of the whole 'challenging the king for his crown' thing right? It's...kinda their thing" as he said 'their' he waved his hand towards the wall, as though gesturing to the entire town.

"So...as long as I'm king" Axel continued, as Ivor and Magnus exchanged glances, walking back towards Axel "I can't leave this tower"

"You lost me" Ivor said "What exactly do you mean?"

Axel sighed, and then said "Boomtown griefers have one goal in mind: to steal my crown! And what can I say?" he shrugged "I'm too good to give it up. Simply put, that's life in Boomtown!"

Ivor and Magnus exchanged a look, that Axel seemed to completely miss as he said "It's not as much fun as you think. I mean, hey, I do get to spit on their heads every now and then, so I guess that's a plus"

"So...just pick someone to be king" Ivor said, not seeing what the problem was.

Axel frowned at them "Hey, I have beaten them, hundreds of thousands of times, and none of them are worthy. They'll see right through it" his eyes twinkled, and he took a step closer to Ivor "Buuuut...you" he began, and Ivor paled, taking a step back "You're the newcomer with the golden amulet. By now, there has got to be rumors flying around about how awesome you are. If you can beat me, then I'll be able to leave!" the grin that was spreading across Axel's face could be described as maniac as the Boom King turned back around and pulled some ladders out of his inventory "I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!"

Ivor arched a brow "How exactly would I beat you?" He had meant it as a legitimate question, as in what kind of stunt could he pull to beat Axel, but Axel seemed to take it as a completely different question all together. "Ha, I know right?" Axel chirruped, placing the ladder in his hand at the bottom of the pit Magnus, Ivor, and Reuben had fallen out of just a few minutes ago. "But that's just it, you won't have to! Oohh this is going to be good!" he turned around and beamed at Ivor and Magnus. "I'm actually excited bout this!" Axel continued, rubbing his hands together "But we have to make sure it looks legit"

Pulling out yet another ladder, Axel said with delight "The Death Bowl has never seen the carnage we're about to create!"

Ivor paled, and glanced at Magnus, who was grinning nearly as widely as Axel

"Uhhh...what's the 'Death Bowl'"

* * *

"WWWWeeeelcome ladies and gentlemen to the Death Bowl!"

Ivor watched as a griefer wearing 3D glasses stood in the center of the arena Axel had led him to.

"In this corner, we have Axel!"the announcer said, pointing to Axel who waved causing cheers to ring through the air. "The King of Boomtown, prepared to defend his title as champion!"

"So tiny" Axel said, a grin on his face "welcome to the Death Bowl" the two were standing side by side, and Magnus and Reuben were behind them, since they weren't participating. "The Grief-off to end all grief-offs!" he lowered his voice to a whisper so that no one else could hear "So how do you want to fake this"

Ivor looked over at the griefers, who were chanting something that sounded suspiciously like 'burn him'.

"Be quick about it though" Axel said, rather impatiently "griefer's aren't known for their patience"

"We'll start off small" Ivor hissed in return "And then I'll throw some TNT at you" Axel turned to wave at the crowd as Ivor finished "Let it graze you, and we'll call it a finish alright?"

"Got it!" Axel said, giving Ivor a thumbs up without even looking at him "Something about TNT, awesome"

As Axel walked away to stand in his 'corner' the announcer turned to Ivor "And you? What name do you go by?"

Ivor smirked and said "I go by the name Amulet Holder" he wasn't entirely sure where that had come from...he just thought it sounded cool. Not to mention it had the benefit of being true, since Petra had given him the amulet

"You heard the name folks!" the announcer said, turning to the crowd "Give a big Death Bowl welcome to...the Amullllllllet Hollllder!" The griefers cheered for a few seconds, until the announcer said "And let's begin!"

Ivor nodded, and walked over to some chests, Magnus did the same, but on the opposite side. The chests were in the center of the arena, and the announcer walked in between the two "Opponents will craft their own griefing tower, which they will then use to grief each other" the announcer said. "The only rule-"

"There are no rules!" a griefer from the stands interrupted. "No eye poking" the announcer corrected, gaining a boo and several 'aw man's' from the stands. "Other than that, go crazy, seriously!"

The announcer waved to the chests "Amulet Holder, pick your building material. And Axel?" he turned towards the man in green armor with a curious expression. Axel waved a hand as though shooing away flies "Nah I'm good" he said "Brought my own supply"

"Let the griefing...begin!"

* * *

Ivor had chosen the chest full of black wool and birch wood for his building material. Primarily because Reuben had liked it, but also he figured that way if he got knocked backwards during the fight, then it wouldn't hurt as much as landing on cobblestone.

"Magnus" Ivor said, spotting his friend standing in Axel's corner, where the reining king was finishing up a tower made of obsidian and dark red concrete. "What are you doing over there?"

"Yeah..." the bald teen said rather sheepishly "I thought you might bring that up...See, Reuben wanted to take your corner" he pointed to the lamb that was practically prancing in place "And I didn't want to hog him or anything, so I thought I would watch from over here"

Ivor rolled his eyes, but was then distracted by Axel shouting "Take your best shot!"

Ivor reached into his bag and pulled out some eggs he had picked up during the chase earlier, and hurled one towards Axel. Axel, understandably, ducked. However, the egg didn't even land anywhere near his tower, smacking into some poor griefer on the far side of the stadium.

Ivor rubbed the back of his neck as the crowd booed and called out nervously "Aaand that is how not to throw an egg"

"You grief with me" Axel shouted across the arena "You grief with the best!"

As the older male turned to fist pump the air at the crowd, Ivor took another egg and hurled it. This time, it smacked right into the back of the man's head, and out popped a baby chicken, flapping it's wings and clucking nervously.

Axel turned around, a strange glint in his eyes "So Amulet Holder" he said "Taking an amulet isn't enough...you need to take my crown as well?"

The audience clapped, and Axel took a quick bow.

"I don't discriminate in my accessory-taking" Ivor said, not really paying attention to how little sense his words made. "Your crown shall be mine!"

"You are but a student" Axel said, walking over to a small platform that had two levers on it "Prepare yourself, because I'm here to give you your final lesson"

Axel pulled one of the switches, and a piece of TNT shot towards Ivor. He half-ducked, before realizing the TNT wasn't even going to graze him, and turned to watch as it smacked into the announcer.

Axel gulped and stammered "Th...that was just a warning!"

"A warning about what?" a griefer called "That you need glasses?"

Ivor grinned and crossed his arms "It seems the student has become the master" he purred "The Amulet Holder will win today" Making his way over to his own TNT launcher at the sound of Reuben's encouraging bleats.

Aiming at Axel, who had his back turned and was shouting at the griefer who had insulted him, Ivor smacked his palm against the button that fired his TNT and watched it sail through the air. Axel turned just in time, and yelped, placing a slime block in front of himself so that the TNT bounced back and exploded at the base of Ivors' tower, ripping apart some of the wool and wood structure.

"What happened to getting hit by my TNT?" Ivor hissed, his voice low enough that Axel could hear him but the griefers couldn't. But when Axel turned to look up at him, there was a strange light in his eyes as the black haired man shouted "NOBODY MESSES WITH THE BOOM MASTER!"

Ivor paled "Oh no"

* * *

'Oh no' was right, as barely a few seconds later, all Ivor was left with on his tower was three pieces of black wool, which he had to do parkour to reach.

Axel had taken the advice of the screaming griefers, and had crafted a canon, which was the reason Ivor's tower was completely destroyed.

"You were supposed to throw the fight" Ivor groaned. Axel was busy cheering with the crowd, building up their hype or something before he went in for the kill...hopefully metaphorically.

"Hey!" Axel shouted, causing Ivor's face to pale even further as he saw Axel glaring at Reuben, who was bleating angrily and stomping his hooves. "Get off, no sheep allowed."

"Stuff!" Magnus shouted from below, gaining Ivor's attention "I've got cool stuff!" he hurled something upwards, and Ivor just barely caught it, realizing it was an arrow that had a strange glow about it "It's an arrow for your bow" Magnus said, like it wasn't obvious "It's enchanted or something"

"A bow in a canon fight?" Ivor said, looking down at Magnus with an expression of both confusion and stupor "Magnus, there are all sorts of cliched lines about this"

"Yeah, but the TNT" Magnus said, pointing to the mouth of Axel's canon, where stacks of TNT could be seen waiting to be fired.

"TNT...plus an arrow" Ivor said slowly, seeing where his friend was going. Magnus grinned, placing his hands on his hips "oh yeah"

"Time to see how well you fly sheep!" Axel said, and when Ivor turned to see just exactly what he meant by that, he saw Reuben shaking in the mouth of the canon. Axel pulled the switch, and Reuben was catapulted forwards. Thankfully, Axel's aim wasn't off this time, and Reuben landed squarely in Ivor's arms. "Man" Ivor muttered, carefully setting Reuben down on the closest block of floating wool "You smell delicious right now"

Reuben gave him a skeptical look, but Ivor ignored it "Hey Axel!" he called

"Yeah short stuff?"

"Flying sheep jokes are totally played out!" Ivor aimed his bow for the mouth of the canon.

Axel flipped one of the switches, causing a piston to push TNT forwards

Ivor fired his bow

Axel pulled the other switch

Two explosions rang through the Death Bowl, and when the smoke cleared, Ivor was crouched on one final piece of wool...

And Axel was flat on his back on the ground.

For a few moments, it was pure silence. Then, the announcer, smoldering slightly from his encounter with Axel's TNT came forwards, and took Ivor's hand, raising it into the air as he shouted "We have a winner! The AMULET HOLDER!"

But before anyone could do anything, say anything, a roar echoed through Boomtown, and all eyes turned to see a black cloud rushing towards them, three heads shooting out a purple tractor beam and sucking up blocks. "ohh that's not good" Ivor said, pulling his hand free and taking a step backwards.

"Holy crap!" Axel said. Having risen to his feet, the former king of Boomtown was staring at the Witherstorm in pure horror "Is that your Witherstorm?"

"We need to get out of here" Ivor said, running forwards and grabbing Axel's arm. Tugging him towards the portal, Ivor heard Axel shouting "NO! STOP IT, STOP EATING MY KINGDOM!

"Axel come on!" Magnus said, taking the man's other arm.

"YOU'LL REGRET MESSING WITH BOOMTOWN!" Axel shouted, before he turned, and let Ivor and Magnus lead him to the Nether Portal


	13. Axel and Olivia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *casually catches up like six months late*  
> sorry about the delay folks, I've been working on FF and not as much on here. Spam updated 13-31

"Alright, just a little farther"

Ivor was in the lead, and by that it meant that he was the highest on the vine trail leading up the large section of stone. Magnus was right behind him, and Axel was just a little below Magnus. Reuben was making his own way up, that involved squeezing through spaces entirely too small for humans to fit through.

As they all reached the top, and walked closer to the building, Axel was the first to comment on the appearance of the structure "Looks like someone went a little overboard with the defenses"

Overboard, was a complete understatement.

Redstone blocks could be seen scattered across the temple, and what looked suspiciously like pressure plates were wired up to the dispensers, which had been re-located to the outside of the temple.

Before the small group could get any closer, a sharp hissing caused them all to jump and whirl around, facing a creeper which was already flashing white. Before it could explode, five arrows shot into it's head, one after the other, and the Creeper became nothing more than a small pile of gunpowder.

"Who goes there?" a voice shouted, as Magnus knelt down to scoop up the gunpowder and put it into his bag. Ivor made a mental note to keep Magnus away from sand and crafting tables for a while. Turning to look at the source of the voice and the arrows, Ivor couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face as his gaze landed on a young black haired woman holding a bow and aiming it at the thick form of Axel. She had some sort of orange goggles on, but after a half-second of silence, Harper pushed the goggles off of her face and beamed "Ivor? Is that you?"

"Harper!" Ivor called in return, nodding and brushing some of his dark hair out of his face. "Yeah we're back"

"Thank Notch" Harper said, putting the bow away "Wait there, I'll let you in"

* * *

As Harper opened the Iron door from the inside, Ivor smiled, and nodded his head towards Axel "We got Axel!" he said, and Harper grinned at him "That's amazing"

After the small group had gotten in and Harper sealed the door shut, the raven haired woman led the way "You are not going to believe who showed up while you were away" she said, a small laugh of delight in her voice. She pointed to a figure leaning against the wall, and Ivor's eyes widened as he realized who it was

"Gabriel!" Magnus shouted, running forwards and all but tackling the dark skinned male with a hug. Gabriel chuckled, and eased Magnus off of him "It's good to see you too Magnus" As Ivor and Reuben came closer, Gabriel nodded to Ivor as well "It's good to see you as well Ivor...back at Petra's bunker, things got...dicey"

"It's such a relief to see you" Ivor said, raising a hand and resting it on the teen's shoulder. "You have no idea" for a brief moment, Ivor thought he saw a small flash of pain flick through Gabriel's eyes, but before Ivor could say anything, Gabriel beat him too it "You pulled me out of that Witherstorm's clutches and I ran and ran for the temple. If you hadn't saved me..." Gabriel shook his head "I owe my life to you Ivor. I'm just glad I heard Petra telling you where to go"

Gabriel rubbed awkwardly at his left arm, but Ivor barely saw that. Instead he asked "Did anyone else get away? Are there any other survivors?"

Gabriel sighed and said softly "It's all a blur...but the Witherstorm left almost nothing behind. Everything...everyone...gone"

Gabriel turned, and led the others deeper into the temple "It even got Petra"

* * *

"It's been a while since I've been here" Axel said softly, climbing the stairs from the library into the upper chamber where Ellegaard was. Axel had his head craned back to look up at the roof, so Ivor saw the person standing next to Ellegaard first.

Ivor turned to glance at Harper, but before words could be said, Axel lowered his head, and his gaze locked onto the woman who was staring out to the woods. "What. is she. doing here?" Axel's hands were clenched into fists, and he was taking deep breaths, his emerald green eyes squeezed shut.

Gabriel arched a brow and said "Call this a hunch, but do you not like each-other"

Axel shook his head "It's not...no it's just..." he sighed "It's complicated"

Harper didn't seem to hear the burly man, as she turned towards Ivor and said "Yeah...I forgot to mention...Ellegaard went on a little quest of her own while you were gone"

"And this...Ellegaard person" Axel said slowly, his eyes opening and fixing on the woman standing next to Ellegaard "brought back her?"

Ellegaard and the other woman, who had dark skin and raven black hair, hadn't noticed the group huddling around the stairs yet, which was probably for the best as Axel turned towards Ivor "Did you know about this? Did Olivia put you up to this?" Axel huffed and crossed his arms, muttering "You think you know a guy"

Ivor frowned "Uh...Is this a problem?"

Axel didn't say anything for a few seconds, before he finally said "Let's just say the two of us have got some issues after..." he shook his head "never mind" he added with a mumble.

Before Ivor could question Axel, Ellegaard finally caught sight of them and ran over to him, hopping up and down excitedly "Ivor!" she all but squealed "Look! I...I found Olivia!"

Ivor sighed, rubbing at the area between his eyes "Look..." he said to Axel "I'll figure things out, just...wait here alright?"

"Good" Axel said, rather awkwardly "You do that"

Ellegaard had already ran back over to Olivia, and as he got closer Ivor could hear the tail end of Olivia's words "-try to play it cool hmmm?" then the dark skinned woman caught sight of him and turned, facing Ivor with a small frown and her arms crossed. "So...who are you now?" Olivia asked "And why did you bring him with you?" as she said 'him' in literally the most demeaning manner possible, Olivia nodded her head towards Axel.

"We're reuniting the Order of the Stone" Ivor said, then his gaze flicked over to Ellegaard "So how did you two meet?" he asked wryly.

Ellegaard beamed at him "It's kind of crazy actually. So, I went to Redstonia, and there were all these incredible inventors. It was kind of intimidating actually" she rubbed her arm nervously, then beamed "But Olivia made me her protege!"

"Well...assistant, for now" Olivia corrected "I mean, after what happened..." she trailed off and Ellegaard winced slightly, a small blush spreading across her face. "I know, and I'm so sorry about that by the way"

"Redstonia?" Ivor interrupted, arching a brow. Ellegaard nodded, turning away from Olivia "It's a town devoted completely to redstone and inventions. It's amazing! I was way out of my league."

Olivia hummed thoughtfully and said "She may have...embarrassed herself a bit"

Ellegaard's face turned beet red, but before any more words could be exchanged, Axel walked over from the stairway, apparently tired of waiting for Ivor. "Hey Olivia" he said, a strange look on his face. Olivia frowned "Hello Axel" she returned "Your voice is exactly as pleasant as I remember, which is to say...not. at. all" she glared at the large man, who frowned, crossed his arms, and countered "Is that the same wit you're going to use to save the world?"

"Why?" Olivia asked "You here to tell me how to do it better?"

"I would never do that" Axel said, voice somewhat sincere "Unlike you, I actually do things instead of just talking about them"

"Hey, that's Olivia you're talking to, show some respect!" Ellegaard snapped, crossing her arms and glaring at the Boom Master.

Axel half smirked at Ellegaard before turning his focus back on Olivia "Looks like you've finally found yourself a live one. Your little devotees are usually more on the ah...bookish side"

"Would you all cut it out?" Ivor finally snapped "Holy crap you're acting like crazy people! Can we please focus on the big picture here? There is a massive witherstorm in the process of turning the whole world into its dinner!"

"Yeah...I'll admit" Axel said, turning away from Olivia and rubbing his arm "That thing looked really nasty, and I've seen some pretty nasty things in my time"

Olivia crossed her arms "Too much for you was it?" she asked a strange expression on her face.

"Hey, you weren't there alright" Axel snapped "You didn't see how this thing just tore everything up!"

Ivor had finally had enough "would you two STOP FIGHTING!"

* * *

After a few tense moments, Gabriel said "Ivor's right. We need some way to stop this thing"

"If only Lukas were here" Olivia said sadly. "He might have something we could use"

Axel let out a groan "Oh...'liv, not this again. You know I hate it when you brag about you and Lukas's little brainy club"

"I'm not bragging!" Olivia cried, exasperated "I think I've got a legitimate idea here!"

"What are you talking about?" Ivor asked, trying desperately hard not to just up and smack Axel and Olivia at this point. "What did Lukas have?"

"Lukas had some sort of...Super TNT" Olivia explained "Stronger, and more explosive than a charged creeper. He called it the 'Formidi-Bomb'"

"Yeah, yeah" Axel said, rolling his eyes "I've heard all about the 'F-Bomb' before."

Magnus arched a brow "F-Bomb?" he asked, looking rather skeptical.

Axel nodded "Yup. Lukas claimed that dropping the F-Bomb could destroy anything. But I've never seen it before"

"As if he would let you within a mile of it" Olivia muttered under her breath.

"Well the Formidi-Bomb sounds like just what we need" Ivor said quickly, before Axel and Olivia could start shouting at each other again. "We should go get it...now"

"Well..there's a small problem with that" Olivia said "We don't know where Lukas is." As Ivor's face began to fall, Olivia added "But, you found us. Do you know where he is?"

Ivor frowned "No...but I know how to find out" he said, a small grin falling into place as he turned his head to look at the Order's map.

* * *

The amulet already in place, Ivor pulled the lever he knew would start the light show up. Walking back to the main area, Ivor stood between Axel and Olivia. "Look, there's my light" Axel said, pointing to the green laser "And there's yours" the red light was right next to the green one on the map, right in the center of things.

As they stood there watching, a new light flickered, and then shone as brightly as the red and green ones. A pure white light, shining up at the very top of the map.

"That's new" Magnus said, drawing a groan from Ellegaard.

* * *

As Ivor was about to pick up the amulet so they could get going immediately like they had decided, after a small argument between Axel and Olivia, the amulet's middle gem began glowing, slowly at first, and then brightly, pulsing with energy as it depicted a blue light moving quickly towards the white light's location.

"Jesse?" Olivia said "No...that's impossible, he's dead!"

Axel stared, mouth open at the map, and Ivor walked towards Olivia, abandoning the amulet "Olivia...Axel, I don't know how to tell you guys this, especially since you all seem to think Jesse was supposed to be dead but...

"He's the one that created the wither."


	14. Sickness and Libraries

The woods were dark, but the moon shone down on the group of eight who were keeping as close to eachother as they possibly could. Ivor was in the lead, with Reuben at his side. The group walked in silence, the only sound they made the sound of their feet treading on dirt.

Ivor could hear one set of footsteps speeding up slightly, so he wasn't all that surprised when a dark skinned woman appeared in his peripheral vision. "Hey, Ivor right?" Olivia asked, her voice quiet so that only she and Ivor could hear. Ivor nodded, though he didn't say anything, which Olivia took as an opportunity to speak "We haven't really had a chance to get to know each other." Ivor shrugged, and Olivia continued "I heard you saved your friend Gabriel from this...Witherstorm?" she chuckled slightly as though the name were absurd "Anyways, it sounds like you're a pretty impressive individual." Ivor shrugged again, not really seeing the point of the conversation the redstone engineer was trying to have. "Pick fights with lots of monsters?" Olivia finally asked a question, and Ivor answered in the briefest way possible. "I just want to keep my friends safe."

Olivia hummed slightly at his response, her dark brown eyes, a darker shade than Ellegaard's bright warm amber, scanning Ivor thoughtfully. "You're humble, I like that, it's a good quality to have."

They walked in silence for a few minutes more, before Olivia said "Anyways, I sort of wish you had taken my side earlier, but...water under the bridge and all that." her words were kind enough, but the way she said them made Ivor want to reach for the nearest weapon. "Slight tangent." Olivia continued, turning her head to watch Ellegaard out of the corner of her eye. The girl, covered head to toe in redstone dust after helping Harper with the defenses and her trip to Redstonia, was half walking half skipping, a massive grin on her face as she retelled her adventure to Magnus. "What's the deal with your friend Ellegaard?"

Ivor turned his head slightly to get his own view of Ellegaard and Magnus, and Magnus caught his gaze, shooting the dark haired male a 'help me please' look, to which Ivor responded with a slight smirk and shake of his head. "I appreciate her enthusiasm," Olivia continued, causing Ivor to focus his attention back on her. As the night grew darker, the soft flecks of redstone dust in her own hair began to glow slightly. "but...she can be a little...what's the word I'm looking for here...much sometimes."

As Ivor thought about what to say, Olivia filled the silence "She's always eager to jump in and help, which is very sweet don't get me wrong, but..sometimes I just wish she would think a little more before jumping in."

Ivor finally said "She's one of my best friends, she's smart, and she always has a plan."

"Interesting" Olivia said, arching a brow at Ivor "If that's the case, then...why didn't you listen to her plan to come and get me?" Olivia smiled sweetly "Not to make it awkward or anything, or to demand 'why didn't you want to recruit me?'"

Ivor shrugged, internally groaning "I figured we needed firepower, and no own knows destruction better than Axel."

"The man does know how to blow things up with reckless abandon" Olivia said, a small smile on her face. She shook her head, and then said "Alright, that makes sense. I won't let it offend me any further." her words, and tone were earnest, and Ivor gave her a smile in return.

* * *

Barely a few minutes after Olivia slowed back down to let Ivor lead the way, deep groans filled the air. The group of travelers froze, as zombies emerged from the shadows. With sharp hisses, spiders and creepers joined them. And up on the tops of trees, several skeletons took aim at the people.

"And this is why we should have waited until morning" Olivia said, her hands reaching for her inventory bag.

"Well...at least the Witherstorm isn't tearing us apart" Axel said

"Argue later, fight now!" Ivor snapped, pulling out his stone sword.

* * *

The sun was starting to rise. The smell of burning flesh, so disgusting but so blessed filled the noses of the battered, but still alive adventurers. Gabriel had dirt covering head to toe from a creeper explosion, Axel had a rather swollen black eye, Ellegaard had a slice across her left arm from a skeleton arrow, Magnus had a spider bite on his leg that he kept leaning down to itch, and Ivor had a bandage wrapped around his right shoulder. He'd been bitten by a zombie, so they'd had to cut the infected flesh off. It hurt like crazy, which was the reason for Axel's black eye. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but Ivor still wanted to just stab every zombie in the entire world to death with a blunt sword.

"Is that Lukas's?" Ellegaard asked, pointing towards something that was fuzzy with distance. It looked to be a massive white structure, with a black ring around the top dome.

Olivia nodded "That's the place...let's go inside."

* * *

"Lukas really lived down here?" Harper asked. So far they'd learned that Lukas really loved staircases, as they'd gone down about four different sets and were now down at least at redstone level, given by the ores glowing in the stone walls. "So far away from...anyone?"

"Enchanting, isn't it" Olivia said. Ivor couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

* * *

Two more staircases and about twelve different gold ore veins later, the group ran into a set of double dark oak doors.

Pushing them open,Ivor walked through to instantly spot double jungle wood doors...on the other side of a massive chasm. The only thing connecting the platform they were standing on and the platform the jungle doors were one was a series of columns that connected down to the floor, far, far below.

Harper blinked at the columns, shook her head and said simply "no. Just...no."

"Aw, come on" Axel said "Look, it's fine" the king of Boomtown took a running start, jumped over the first pitfall, and landed neatly on the first pillar. "See!" A grin split Magnus's face, and the bald teen was quick to jump after the griefer "Whhooooo!"

"Just...don't fall" Ivor said to the rest of the group, before making his own jump.

* * *

They made it all safely across the pillars, and into the next room.

Well...mostly safely. Ivor and Reuben fell off, landed in some water, and had to avoid some Endermen. Harper had tumbled down after them, and they had used the river to get to the next room which was, surprise, at the bottom of a massive staircase.

As the small group of three pulled themselves out of the water, Ivor could hear Axel and Olivia fighting. Picking up Reuben, who was absolutely drenched, Ivor patted off some of Reuben's fur, and then followed Harper towards the others.

"That's it, I'm going." Olivia snapped, turning and walking into a tunnel marked off by redstone "Oh no, you don't get to be the one walking away." Axel snapped back, turning and running into a tunnel marked off by what looked suspiciously like emerald blocks. "See, I'm walking away too!" Axel hollered over his shoulder "Super TNT here I come!"

Ellegaard saw Ivor, Reuben, and Harper walking closer, as muttered "It's hard to see the glass half full when they keep kicking the glass over." Harper arched a brow and muttered "And I thought they were doing so well." Her voice literally oozed sarcasm.

"They've definitely got issues to work through." Ivor said, "But hopefully they'll figure it out before we have to fight the Witherstorm again."

Ellegaard nodded, and then changed the subject. "So...where are we going to go now?"

Ivor shrugged "We'll figure it out."

That seemed to be answer enough for Ellegaard, as she wandered off to investigate the doorway Olivia had walked through.

* * *

As he walked around the massive room, Ivor couldn't help but keep glancing at Gabriel. The dark skinned man was coughing, and he just...looked off. Turning his head again, and then wincing and internally cursing at his stupidity because of the pain jolting through his neck and shoulder, Ivor decided to try talking to Gabriel. "Hey Gabe." he said, walking over to him. Gabriel was still fairly caked in dirt, which was the worst damage he'd taken, and yet he looked like he had been the one bitten by a zombie. "hey." Gabriel croaked out. Ivor's frown deepened. Even Gabriel's voice, usually strong and unwavering, sounded like he had skeletons using his ribs as bows.

"Are you alright?" Ivor asked, deciding the best tactic here was to be blunt. Gabriel looked over Ivor's shoulder, and when Ivor tried to turn his head, cursed himself again, and turned his entire body, he could see the Harper watching them intently. He had spoken with her a few minutes ago, and she had expressed her concern for the go-getter. Turning back around, Ivor could hear Gabriel saying "I...I need to discuss something with you...in private."

Ivor frowned, and then shrugged, gritting his teeth as he discovered that shrugging did, indeed, cause jolts of pain to rack through his body. "We'll split up." he said a second later, when he could talk without screaming like a girl.

* * *

Magnus, Harper, and Ellegaard, although the latter wasn't all that happy about it, went down the tunnel Axel had taken. Ivor had chosen Olivia's tunnel, since he did actually feel a tad guilty about not going after her earlier.

Ivor, Reuben, and Gabriel walked in silence for a while, before Gabriel finally spoke. "I...I feel bad about ditching everyone else, but...I wanted to talk to you about this alone. It's...a little hard to talk about, and...well, we both know Magnus can get a bit explodey at times."

"Whatever it is," Ivor replied "I trust you, you can tell me."

Gabriel smiled at the black haired teen "Thank you, for being so understanding"

They walked in silence for a few more minutes, Ivor letting Gabriel talk at his own pace. Finally, Gabriel stopped, and Ivor did too, turning to look at his friend curiously. "You...got me away from the Witherstorm" Gabriel said, using his right hand to mess with the sleeve that covered his left arm "But, I am...worried that I did not get away soon enough." he pulled the sleeve upwards, revealing that his dark skin was turning a mottled purple. Ivor's eyes widened, but before he could say anything Gabriel said "It showed up not too long after you saved me, and it's been growing ever since."

"Holy-" Ivor began, before shaking his head with a slight growl "We need to get you out of here, to a doctor!"

"I don't know if there's anything anyone can do." Gabriel said sadly. "Do you know what 'Wither' is?" Ivor blinked, and if Gabriel hadn't just shown him the weird purple stuff that seemed to be draining at his energy, Ivor would have knocked him out "Of course I do" he said, fighting to keep the bite out of his tone. "It's what we've been running away fro-" "Not the witherstorm." Gabriel interrupted, "Just Wither, also known as Wither Sickness"

Ivor's eyes widened, and then determination spread across his face "That's it." he said "We're going back to tell the others."

"You can't tell anyone about this!" Gabriel said quickly, face pleading. Before any more words could be exchanged, a sharp hiss sounded around the corner. The three turned in time to see a Creeper emerge from the shadows, flash white once, and explode.

* * *

Ivor had fallen down the hole. Gabriel and Rueben were back up, trying to find a safer way down to where Ivor had fallen. In adition to the cleansed zombie bite, Ivor now sported two bruises. One on his left kneecap, the other on his right elbow. Making his way over to the amulet, which had fallen out of his pocket, Ivor blinked in surprise. The red and green lights were still glowing, the red more brightly than the green, but now the middle gem, a rich dark blue, was glowing rather brightly.

Picking up the amulet, Ivor began to follow the glow, like he had done at Boomtown. As he walked, the green light grew brighter as well, so he figured he was walking back towards the room where they had split up, just at a lower level.

* * *

Ivor walked into the biggest library he had ever seen. The books went clear up to the ceiling, and there were shelves absolutely everywhere. There was also a table in the center, with even more books piled onto it. And in the back corner of the room, a figure was furiously looking at the books. He wasn't wearing his cloak, and his long brown hair made him instantly recognizable. The man was talking to himself, words echoing in the massive space "He must have something useful here, he has to! Why else would he have so many books? Was he just collecting them? He can't have read all of these"

"Uh...Hello?" Ivor called. He was ninety percent sure it was Jesse, but the memory of what had happened at Endercon was still rather fresh in his mind. Had that only been two nights ago? So much had happened since then. The man stiffened, and then whirled around, his face, and the scar on his neck, revealing that it was indeed Jesse. As Jesse realized who Ivor was, his face twisted into a snarl "YOU!" he growled, hands clenching into fists. Jesse took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and when he opened them again he was still glaring, but he seemed to be at least a little calmer. "Trying to interfere with my plans again I see" the brown haired man said, eyes narrow.

Ivor crossed his arms and stood his ground as Jesse took a few steps forwards "Your tenacity is commendable, but misguided" the former member of the Order said. "You found your way here, and you may now take your leave. Immediately.

"Look." Ivor said, gritting his teeth and trying his hardest not to lunge at the man in a punching frenzy like he had in the Nether. "I think we're here for the same reason. I'm here with the Order to try and find Lukas's Super TNT. We're going to take down your Witherstorm."

Jesse seemed to find this hilarious"The Order?" he laughed "Believe me, that plan will blow up in more ways than one. They cannot help you" he calmed himself, and walked closer to Ivor "But me?" he added, brown hair falling forwards to frame his face "I choose not to. Now, get out of my way."

Ivor glared daggers into Jesse's eyes, but the robed man seemed to think nothing of this, simply arching a brow and waiting for Ivor to comply. As they stood there, in total silence, Jesse's gaze wandered to the bandage poking out of Ivor's shirt. He frowned, and opened his mouth as though he were about to say something, but before he could Gabriel and Reuben entered the room "Where do you think you're going?" Gabriel asked, eyes narrow. The teen looked surprisingly fierce despite the small bags forming around his eyes.

"You escaped?" Jesse asked, slight surprise in his tone. "Well, how very good for you-" he looked like he was going to say more, but Gabriel let out a battle cry and lunged forwards, golden sword that he had stolen from Jesse's hideout flashing outwards.

Ivor thought he was imagining it, but when Jesse saw the sword, for just a brief moment, his eyes widened in fear, and he seemed to flinch backwards. But then the moment passed, and Jesse was dodging Gabriels blows with practiced ease.

Ivor drew his own stone sword, but he was afraid of hitting Gabriel. So mostly he kind of just stood in the doorway he had come from so as not to let Jesse out.

"I'm the only one that can stop the Witherstorm!" Jesse snarled after a few minutes of dodging had passed. He did a fancy maneuver that resulted in Gabriel's sword flying out of his hands, turned, got a running start, and using one hand to lift himself above the table, the brown haired man did some sort of twist slash flip to land on the other side, facing Gabriel with one hand behind his back. "Not you, not the Order." the way he said the word 'order' with such fury and venom, made Ivor wonder what had happened between them to cause such hate bubble up inside this man. He lifted the hand from behind his back, revealing the golden sword he had kicked out of Gabriel's palm. "Don't make yourselves the villains in my story."

* * *

Ivor and Jesse had fought for a few minutes, Gabriel trying to find a way to get his sword back as Jesse alternated between speed and invisibility potions, before Harper, Magnus, and Ellegaard finally charged into the room."More of you?" Jesse cried, sounding quite exasperated "Will this parade of useless babble never cease?"

Ivor took the opportunity to smack the blunt end of his blade into Jesse's chest. The long haired man fell to the floor, and Gabriel finally recovered his blade. "What's going on?" Ellegaard asked. "We found Jesse," Ivor replied "we stopped him."

"False" Jesse coughed, getting to his feet "You have stopped nothing" he reached into his inventory, and pulled out a purplish gray potion. Ivor aimed his sword at Jesse, as the man strolled towards them, almost casually "A query..." Jesse said, studying the potion intently. "Have you ever seen the effects of a Splash Potion of Slowness?"

Ivor frowned "What-" he started, but before he could finish, Jesse threw the potion. It exploded into a series of red particles that surrounded the group

"-aaaaaarrrrrrreeeee yooooouuuu ttttaaaalkiiiinng aaabbbboooouuuttt" Ivor finished, his words coming out faaaaar too slow. Jesse grinned, and walked around the group, nimbly avoiding the remains of the spilled potion. As he stood in the doorway, Jesse turned and watched as the others very slowly followed suit "YYYyyooooooouuuuu bbiiiiiiiigggggg jeeeeeerrrrrrkkkk" Magnus snarled

"Axel and Olivia may think they can stop me," Jesse said, a small smirk on his face as he watched and listened to the group "that they can stop the Witherstorm. But they are mistaken...and it will cost them their lives" he turned around and walked out of the room, stepping over a pressure plate as he did so, causing pistons to fire, a sound Ivor was really starting to hate, and the bookshelves pushed themselves closed around the room's only opening, sealing the group inside.


	15. Under the Library

_It is said that within every loss, every challenge, and every failure;_ _there is a gift._

_When revered heroes are lost, we find new ones in our friends._

_When we're given grief, we find a way to give it back_

_And when our band of unlikely heroes are tasked with saving the world from the coming storm;_

_they will bring together the bravest and brightest to stop it._

_But finding the last, and most elusive of the Order of the Stone and his legendary Formidi-Bomb would prove their most perilous mission yet_

_For some would rather our heroes story end here, shutting the door on their adventure forever._

_But like all doors, when one closes, another is bound to open_

* * *

The doors slammed shut, and Ivor's eyes widened in slow motion. He turned around, painstakingly slowly, and was helpless to watch as Magnus tripped over something, and started to fall onto Harper, who saw him out of the corner of her eye. "Waaattcchhhh iiitttt" she began, when suddenly the particles surrounding them flew into the air and vanished, the spilt potion drying itself off of the floor "Get out of the way!" she finished in normal speed, but it was a little too late, as Magnus bowled into her, knocking the black haired girl to the ground, flattened under the bald teen.

For a few minutes, nobody moved. Then Magnus groaned "owwwwwwwww." And under him, Harper wheezed "Get. off."

As Magnus rolled off of Harper, Ivor asked "Is everyone alright?" Harper, who was getting to her own feet, shot Ivor a _seriously?_ look. Ivor blushed, and rubbed the back of his head, changing the topic quickly "We need to find a way out of here, and to Lukas" Harper nodded, though she was mostly focused on brushing off her clothes.

As the small group dispersed through the room, trying to find a way out, Ivor walked right over to Gabriel, who was looking a lot worse. "Are you alright?" he asked bluntly. "Why...are you asking me that?" Gabriel asked. Ivor repressed a shudder. Even his voice sounded horrible, all scratchy and generally like a zombie was constantly clawing at his vocal cords. "Just...checking up on you." Ivor lied. "Everything's fine." Gabriel said "All of it. Are you o-" he broke off coughing. Clearing his throat, the dark skinned man tried again "Are you-" only to be stopped by another coughing fit.

After the coughing finally stopped, Gabriel lowered his voice, and spoke slowly so as to avoid more coughing. "I do not wish to scare you." he said "But...look." Gabriel held out his arm, pulling up the sleeve. The purple had spread, and was almost to the point of showing past the sleeve. "It's starting to feel stiff," Gabriel said after a few minutes of silence, rolling the sleeve back down. "and my vision is all jittery."

"We have to tell the others." Ivor said. Harper was already looking at them suspiciously, it was only a matter of time before she figured it out on her own. "This isn't a we thing." Gabriel all but growled. "Yes it is." Ivor countered "We're a team. They deserve to know."

"Maybe." Gabriel said, looking away. "Fine. I...I'll tell them. Soon. But you have to promise not to tell them until I do. We don't need any panic right now."

Ivor studied Gabriel for a few minutes before he sighed "Alright" he relented "But you have to tell them soon." Gabriel nodded "Alright." he said.

Content, Ivor was about to walk away, when Magnus spoke up "I've got an idea!" he said with a grin. Ellegaard, who had been looking at the map on the table, looked up curiously. Ivor arched a brow, and then let out a soft groan as all Magnus did was shout "AXEL! HELP!"

A few moments passed, before a steady rush of red flooded Magnus's face. At the table, Ivor could see Ellegaard shaking her head. "Alright, so that didn't work." Magnus muttered. His eyes lit up "I've got another idea!" he exclaimed, raising his hands to his mouth. Before he could say anything though, Ellegaard asked "Is it shouting for Olivia?" Magnus wilted as he muttered "Not...anymore."

Harper made a noise of frustration, and whirled away. "They aren't going to find us" she called over her shoulder "They aren't coming back, and why should they? All we've done for them was"

"They couldn't abandon us if they wanted to." Ivor said with a smirk. Harper turned around, her arms crossed. She looked rather mad...but she had a brow arched. "Not as long as we have this." Ivor reached into his inventory, and pulled out the amulet. Both the red and green gems were glowing, and even the blue middle one had a dim glow. But as the group watched, the blue light faded away, probably because of distance, and the red and green ones flickered once, twice, before flickering away completely.

"Looks like it might be broken" Gabriel said slowly. The pained look on his face made it look like he was trying to hold his lungs together by sheer will-power.

Ivor scowled at him, then immediately regretted it as he saw the pain sketched into Gabriel's face. "It's working fine" he muttered under his breath, looking away.

"Not if you can't get it to work" Harper muttered under her breath. Ivor shot her a suspicious look, but before he could say anything the amulet crackled with energy, literally crackled, lightning flashing along the surface, causing the black haired teen to drop it. The amulet clattered to the ground, the red and green gems once again glowing faintly, and this time, a new light, this one pure white, was glowing.

"Lukas!" the name was breathed out, but in the silence, it may as well have been shouted.

* * *

"This is the spot" Ivor said softly. He'd been walking around the room for the past minute, trying to find where the glow was 'd found it...in the middle of the floor, with the amulet hovering directly above the cracked stone bricks. "Get ready to dig"

"Who knows how far down that goes?" Harper asked. Ivor looked up at her, and for the first time realized that she looked...broken. She was ready to give up to the Witherstorm. The next time they faced it, she was not planning on coming out alive. "We might end up digging until we hit bedrock." Harper continued, letting out a shaky breath. Ivor realized that when she had tried to leave a few nights ago, it hadn't been to go and find Hadrien and the others, it had been to go and find some way to die.

Ivor looked Harper directly into her broken eyes and said softly "We have to have faith. If we don't believe that we can do this, then who will? We have to have faith that we _will_ find Lukas. We _will_ stop the witherstorm. We _will_ see everyone, and I do mean everyone, come out alive." Harper kept her gaze locked with his for a few moments, before a stone pickaxe swung between their faces and Magnus broke the first block of the floor.

* * *

They had dug out a five by five hole, that was really only four by four because of the blocks they had left in place for stairs. Ivor was at the bottom, his pickaxe breaking another block to reveal a gaping openness of pitch black. "Are we cool?" Magnus called down, peering from the top. As Ivor's eyes adjusted, he realized it wasn't really that big of a hole, just a few blocks drop, it wouldn't cause any pain if he jumped from where he was currently standing "It's a hole." he called back up.

Magnus was silent for a moment, before he called down "So does that mean we're cool?"

Ivor shrugged, knowing full well that from this distance they couldn't see his shoulders moving. "It's pretty dark, but I don't hear anything. I'm jumping."

Before the others could protest, Ivor braced his legs, and jumped down. Using the amulet like a torch, Ivor called up "We're good!" the room was long and narrow, and from what he could see there was nothing in it. It was three blocks tall, and roughly five or six wide.

"Heading down" Ellegaard called, starting on the stairs from the sound of things. Ivor began to look around. A small sound echoed through the loud space, and Ivor froze. Turning towards the source, Ivor shined the amulet towards the side of the cave he hadn't been facing. Shining right back at him were millions of small, glowing red eyes. "BATS!" Ivor yelped, right as Ellegaard dropped down besides him. Ellegaard froze, eyes locked onto the blood red eyes of the bats, and then she was screaming, shrieking really, as the bats flooded forwards.

* * *

A few minutes later the bats were gone, Ellegaard was flushed red from head to toe, and Harper, Gabriel, Magnus, and Reuben had joined Ivor and Ellegaard in the hole. Everyone seemed to be fine, minus Gabriel who was turning purpler by the second, and Harper, whom Magnus had all but crushed by tripping on the stairs and falling square onto.

"What's that smell?" Ellegaard asked, her nose twitching. She was still beet red, but the shadows of the cave hid it pretty well. Ivor just knew his friend well enough to tell when she was blushing. "Just breathe through your mouth" Gabriel suggested. He was still talking slowly ,but he did have a pretty heavy rasp at this point, and every now and then he broke out into a coughing fit.

"Magnus already does that" Harper muttered. For a moment, as Magnus protested, Ivor felt a glimmer of hope that Harper was deciding to fight, at least for a little longer, but then she looked away, whispering an apology. As her head turned, Ivor saw her eyes, and they still had that despaired look. "Let's get out of here" Ivor muttered. _Before Harper decides to follow a bat to a skeleton spawner or anything..._

* * *

"Stay close Reuben." Ivor muttered. The black and white lamb looked up at him and bleated, tail wagging slightly. The group was nearing what appeared to be the end of the tunnel, and as they got closer they could begin to see other, similar tunnels, some blocked off with iron bars. "Whoa" Magnus muttered, as Ivor pocketed the amulet. He really didn't feel like losing it, and the place, whatever it was, was pretty well lit with torches.

"We have to get out of here." Ellegaard whispered, backing away from the opening. She had gotten control over her blush a few minutes ago, It was hard to hear her words over the routine smashing sound that kept echoing through the massive cavern, but they got the gist. "Why?" Harper asked. Ivor frowned slightly, as he noticed Harper eyeing the edge. Though there was a set of stairs on the side, the black haired girl looked intent on 'accidentally' falling off and 'ill-fatedly' avoiding any platforms until she landed on one that made her go splat.

"We just got here." Magnus protested, dragging Ivor's attention away from Harper.

"You don't understand!" Ellegaard cried "This is a grinder!"

Ivor paled, and turned to watch the tunnel opposite them. A wave of water was rushing through it, pushing down three skeletons, who free-fell until they were crushed by pistons.

Ivor really hated pistons at this point.


	16. Hi ho, Hi ho, It's off to the End We Go

Water gushed downwards into a room filled with minecarts, rails, chest, and redstone. Everywhere, redstone.

Well, no longer everywhere as the cascade of water flooded into the room and spread, washing away redstone and causing a few of the minecarts to slow to a halt. Thankfully only one or two stopped, and the rest of the room continued running smoothly in the silence.

Silence, that was broken by four humans and one lamb screaming and gasping for air as they were released from the watery trap.

Coughing the water from her lungs, Harper managed to get out "I thought water was supposed to break a fall."

"Is everyone alright?" Ivor asked, picking up Reuben and holding him tightly. His heart was still racing from the jolt of panic that had shot through him when he had seen a skeleton aiming at the little lamb. Reuben let out a soft bleat, and nuzzled Ivor's cheek, but Ivor kept holding him.

"Well," Ellegaard muttered "I'm definitely not thirsty anymore." Gabriel chuckled, then broke off coughing, and Harper shot him a suspicious look, which Ivor supposed was better than looking at the minecarts in the back that looked suspiciously to be stocked with TNT.

Ivor frowned, as he realized one of their group was missing. "Where's-" he began, only to be cut off by the very familiar sound of Magnus screaming. Another flood of water, more loosened redstone, and a bald-teen, now crushing Harper.

"No worries." Magnus muttered, not even bothering to lift his head from where it lay buried in a pile of gravel. He didn't seem to realize that he was on top of someone, as he said "I'm tooooottally fine." he then proceeded to burp, which Ivor figured meant that the bald male had accidentally swallowed some of the water.

"Whhyyyyyyyy" Harper groaned

* * *

As the small group of friends began to explore the weird room, Magnus made his way over to Ivor, who was still holding onto Reuben like he was a lifeline. "Hey, thanks for coming for us up there." Magnus said "I owe you, if there ever comes a time when I can pay you back, I will pay you back. With interest."

"I'm just glad you're alright Magnus." Ivor replied "Both of you." The black haired teen lowered his head and pressed it into Reuben's still soggy fur. If he had lost Reuben, he wasn't sure what he would have done.

Magnus smiled, and gave Ivor an odd look. "Thanks Ivor." he said. A half-beat of silence followed, and then Magnus said "There's something different about you Ivor, you're..." he rubbed the back of his neck, thinking, and tilted his head back. Ivor arched a brow, waiting for him to finish, but something else caught Magnus's attention, completely erasing whatever he had been about to say from his mind. "Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it" Magnus said, eyes glued to the mob drops floating around the room and dropping into chests and minecarts. "This is where all the loot gets sorted right?"

Ellegaard, who was standing across from them trying to repair the redstone their watery entrance had disrupted, looked up. "That's exactly what this is" she said, redstone glittering on her hands and clothes.

"See that!" Magnus said with a huge grin on his face "Things are starting to turn around." With that he shoved past Ivor, heading for one of the many double chests scattered about the room.

"It's cool what you did up there." Gabriel said, making his way towards him. The dark skinned male's time in the water didn't seem to have done him any favors, in fact, he looked worse than he had before. Ivor knew Gabriel could excuse his obvious weariness by claiming it was from all the fighting they had just done. He did have a rather nasty bruise swelling up over his right eye from a zombie, but the purple of the Wither was starting to spread past the shadows of his sleeve. It wouldn't be long before the others started asking questions. "We stick together, and we'll be fine." Gabriel continued, snapping Ivor out of his worried thoughts "It's good to know that you're not letting this get to your head."

Ivor smiled slightly "Thanks Gabe." he said quietly, before walking over to Harper, who was sitting on a chest, studying the amulet, which now only had the red and green gems glowing. "Thanks for grabbing that back there." Ivor said softly "Can I have it back?"

Harper shrugged, and held it out, but before she could let go the white gem burst to life, a vibrant white glow flowing over the two humans. Harper gasped, and pulled the amulet back towards her "Lukas!" she said, eyes wide and slowly melting from fear to hope. "He's close..."

Harper got to her feet and walked around the room in a slow circle "He's...through here." she said, pointing the amulet at a dark hallway. "Look how bright it is!"

But just as suddenly as the light had flickered to life, it flickered out. Harper's eyes widened, the fear flooding back in as she shook the amulet gently. Before anything could be said a loud rumble rang through the room, and everyone's eyes darted to the waterfall.

"Sounds like the grinder is backed up." Ellegaard said, flickers of concern darting through her face.

"With loot?" Magnus asked hopefully from where he stood kneeling at a chest.

Another strong rush of water flooded out of the ceiling, but with it did not come loot. With the water came skeletons, zombies, spiders, and creepers.

"GO!" Ivor shouted, running for the dark hallway.

* * *

"There's two things I hate," Magnus panted as they neared a light source at the end of the tunnel. "running, and monsters."

The small group ran up a small set of stairs, only to find themselves staring down at a square of black swirling portal. It looked like a black nether portal, but much bigger, and lying on the ground.

"Holy Notch!" Ellegaard exclaimed "An End Portal!"

A groan from behind snapped Ivor out of his shock "That's our way out." he said, preparing to jump. "Wait!" Harper said, grabbing his shoulder. Ivor stifled a groan. If she was about to ask if she could stay behind to 'hold off the mobs' he was going to shove her in the portal head-first. But when he turned to face the raven haired girl, he saw what she was seeing.

Gabriel, staggering slowly through the tunnel backwards, sword slashing far too slowly at a zombie. Right before Ivor's eyes, the zombie let out a deep moan, and lunged forwards, slashing at Gabriel's face with clawed hands. The sick man fell backwards, flashing red as blood began to drip from his cheek.

"Gabriel..." Ivor could barely breath. He reacted on instinct. He didn't know what he was doing, pulling out his sword and setting Reuben down in one smooth moment, lunging for the zombie and shoving his sword between it's blank black eyes. The zombie died, and Ivor put his sword away, helping Gabriel up with a rush of adrenaline that coursed through his veings, giving him the strength to haul the other teen up the stairs, and into the portal. He could hear the sounds of the others jumping in after him, but it was muted, as though from far away. The only thing he knew, truly knew, in that moment, was that he had to get Gabriel, had to get his injured friend, to safety.

* * *

Ivor had blacked out after going through the portal. Or maybe he had been awake for a few minutes after arriving in the End, but the sudden lack of adrenaline had caused his body to go into a forced shut down.

Whatever had happened, he woke to the feeling of wet lamb nuzzling his face. Smiling slightly, Ivor pushed Reuben away and looked around. They were sitting on an obsidian platform with a cobblestone bridge leading to the main island. There were smaller islands floating all the way around, with what looked like buildings on them.

Looking around, Ivor saw that Ellegaard and Gabriel were there already, Gabriel leaning over the edge of the obsidian making heaving noises, Ellegaard studying Gabriel with concern. Harper arrived a few seconds later, popping into the world with a startled expression. Before she could move, Magnus appeared directly above the young woman, and flattened her into the obsidian.

"Those are my ribs Magnus." Harper groaned "my broken, battered ribs."

"Sorry." Magnus chirped, not looking at all sorry. But he got off anyways. Harper sat up, took one look beyond Magnus, let out a startled yelp and brought her hands up to her face. Ivor frowned at her "Are you hurt?"

"Wha-?" Harper asked, looking up at him and pulling her hands away partially to reveal that she wasn't crying "No- just...look" she nodded her head past Magnus, and then proceeded to cover her eyes again. Ivor turned his head, only to snap his gaze back to the floor. Endermen, millions of millions of endermen were teleporting around the soft light tan stone.

* * *

Harper was leading the way through the End. Gabriel had wanted to, but yet another coughing fit had caused a bolt of determination to break through the fear in Harper, and who was Ivor to say no. If she was feeling up to leading them towards the stair-case they had seen Lukas climbing, then Ivor was not going to stop her.

Although he did keep glancing upwards to make sure she wasn't leading them into a death-trap.

* * *

They had climbed about twenty flights of stairs.

"Someday..." Magnus panted "I hope I love something as much as Lukas loves stairs."

"Ivor" Gabriel called up. He was a few sets of stairs below the rest of them, breathing heavily and bent over. "Can you give me a sec?" Ivor glanced around at the others, and then nodded "Sure. We could all use a break."

* * *


	17. Questioning Sanity

"Wonder where this goes." Ivor muttered, eyeing the ladder that the stairs had led to with suspicion. If it led to more stairs, he swore he was going to fillet Lukas after they got the Formidi-Bomb

"It goes up." Magnus responded from behind. Ivor sighed, and rubbed the space between his eyes. To is left he heard Ellegaard groaning, but Gabriel let out a soft laugh. That would have gotten Ivor's hopes up, had it not been instantly followed by a bout of coughing.

"Time to find out." Ivor said with a small sigh. Turning his head just enough to make sure Harper hadn't 'accidentally' tripped off of the edge, Ivor took hold of the ladder and began to climb.

A wooden trapdoor wasn't all that far above him, and he reached it quickly. Pushing it open with a small click, Ivor emerged into the literal strangest scene he had ever seen.

* * *

Five minutes later everyone else had climbed up the ladder, and they had made a very...startling revelation.

"You're telling me we've been resting all our hopes on this guy, and this whole time he's been making some sort of...artificial happy land?" Harper cried. As Ivor watched, the despair and fear flooded back into her gaze.

"Well..." Magnus said, holding a piece of brown wool from where he had punched one of the 'trees'. "It's real wool."

Ivor could see that Magnus was just trying to help, but that fact didn't seem to register in Harper's mind because she whirled around and snapped "It's real evidence that Lukas is wacked!" Magnus flinched, dropping the wool.

"Could it be he just missed home?" Ellegaard asked, tilting her head back to study the glowstone 'sun' floating in the sky.

"If you miss home, you visit!" Harper cried, kicking the dropped wool away from her "You don't build an exact replica!" Harper let out a shuddering breath "We came here for nothing." Harper started to stomp away, pausing at a wooden bridge that overlooked a river. Real water gushed through the 'ravine', and for a moment Harper studied the water intently. Ivor gave a quick mental thank to Notch that the water only raced one block high.

"Harper, are you alright?" Gabriel asked worriedly, a question which Ivor thought was very ironic.

Harper laughed, a cold, harsh sound. "Take a look around Gabriel. If the greatest builder of all time has spent his time working on this, then what are the chances he'll even have the bomb?" Not even bothering to wait for an answer, Harper stalked across the bridge and sat down underneath one of the wool trees, her arms wrapped around her legs.

"What's going on with her?" Magnus asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Ivor sighed "Just...give her some space."

* * *

"So, Gabriel." Ivor said, walking over to the dark skinned male who was leaning against a 'stone' pile. "On a scale of ugh to argh, how bad are you feeling?"

Gabriel shrugged and said "Somewhere in between. But I'm holding on."

Ivor nodded, happy with that answer, and changed the subject. "How do you think Lukas got out of here without leaving any clues."

Gabriel gave him a 'really?' look. "He is the literal greatest builder of all time. You really think he doesn't have super secret secret doors down here?"

Ivor nodded, a small blush crawling up his neck "So I'm probably looking for-"

Gabriel cut him off "To open a secret door, you're going to need a secret mechanism. Look around for anything redstone."

Ivor nodded, and turned around, wandering over to Magnus who was studying the glowstone hanging from the ceiling. On his way he spotted a lever, and doing what any self-respecting intruder of fake woolen worlds would do, he flicked it. A soft musical tone rang through the room, causing most of the people in it to jump. Over near one of the walls with clouds, a set of redstone lamps flickered to life.

"Thought you could trip me up, huh fake sun." Magnus was saying as Ivor approached. "Well it's not gonna work." he crossed his arms and smirked. Spotting Ivor out of the corner of his eye, Magnus grinned "Sup Ivor?" Ellegaard was nearby, studying the river, and she looked up at them for a second before walking over. "How are you two holding up?" Ivor asked. If he was being honest with himself, he was talking to all the others to avoid talking to Harper.

But he wasn't being honest with himself, and if anyone asked him he would smack them into the Void.

"Could be worse" Magnus said with a shrug "could be better."

Ivor nodded, then glanced at Harper. "Do either of you know what's eating Harper?" he asked. So he already knew, he just wanted to know how much his friends knew. Magnus wasn't all that observant when it came to other people's emotions, unless it was Ivor or oddly Ellegaard, and Ellegaard preferred to look at people's inventions instead of what they they were saying or doing.

"Well, as a long time observer of human behavior..." Magnus said, tilting his head towards Harper and studying her slouched form for a few minutes "...I have absolutely no idea"

Ellegaard rolled her eyes and said "Sorry Ivor, but I think the shock of what's going on has just caught up to her. She should be fine eventually."

Ivor nodded "Thanks Ellie. I'm gonna go keep poking around."

* * *

Ivor kept to his word and explored just about every inch of the wool world he could reach without going near Harper. He found another lever, pulled it of course, and watched as another section of redstone lamp cloud turned on. He'd also seen a very cute flock of sheep made out of various colors of wool with item frames for faces. It was stupid, and kinda screamed that the builder, a grown man, was insane...but it was very cute he had to admit.

Finally, there was nothing left to do but talk to Harper. He'd tried to see if there was a way to avoid it, but she was leaning against a tree that had a third lever on it, and if he just ran over, pulled the lever and ran away well...frankly that would just be awkward.

Making his way to the dark haired girl, Ivor saw that she'd pulled up the hat on her dark brown hoodie, and a pair of googles that seemed to be sown onto the hood were perched ontop of her head.

"What do you want?" Harper asked, lifting her head to glare at him. Ivor looked through the silver glare, and saw the tear stains on her cheeks. She might have been trying to hide them, but Ivor knew tear-streaks when he saw them. "Harper" he said, speaking quietly and trying to put a soothing tone into his voice "No matter how upset you are, or how down you are feeling, you've got to keep it together. We are going to beat the Witherstorm. We are going to see the people we love again."

The glare in Harper's gaze melted away to a strange combination of hope, curiosity, and fear. "I know." she said unexpectedly 'It's just...it's hard Ivor, every time I think about that monster, I think that, if we had just taken one of those skulls, we could have stopped everything. If-" "Stop." Ivor said, resting a hand on her shoulder as he knelt down to sit next to her. "Harper, there was nothing we could we had taken a skull he would have just found one somewhere else, and then he might have done it when we weren't there to help Gabriel. We're reuniting the Order, we're doing all we can to help."

Harper gave him a weak smile "Thank you, Ivor."

Her gray gaze flicked towards Gabriel, who was doubled over coughing. "I'm worried about Gabriel." Harper admitted, although Ivor suspected majority of her reasoning for bringing it up was she wanted a change of subject. But he went along with it. "You have to have noticed." Harper continued "The lack of energy, the labored breathing, and I'm pretty sure he threw up on the stairs about seven times."

"To be fair," Ivor interrupted "Magnus threw up as well, those stairs were evil incarnate."

Harper glared, but her mouth was twitching upwards. "There's something wrong, alright?" she insisted "Something...big. And it's not fooling anybody. It's not fooling me."

Ivor took a deep breath and said "Listen, you need to promise not to tell anyone." Harper's eyes widened "So there is something wrong...Ivor, how can we keep this a secret?" Ivor sighed "Because Gabriel told me not to tell. And, I didn't. You figured it out, and now I'm asking you to respect Gabriel's wishes, please, don't tell the others, at least not until Gabriel has a chance to."

Harper groaned "Ivor, if he's sick, Magnus and Ellegaard need to know. And what about Axel and Olivia? Do they know?"

Ivor shook his head "Only Gabriel, me, and now you. Please, Harper I'm begging you, if it gets much worse you can tell, but for the time being...please."

Harper huffed "Fine." she crossed her arms and turned away. Ivor's gaze flicked upwards for a moment towards the lever and he said "Uh, do you mind leaning to the left for a minute?" Harper blinked, and looked at him like she was praying to the Admin that she had heard him wrong "What?" she asked.

Ivor pointed to the lever "I need to pull the lever up there, and I'd really rather not smack your head." Harper tilted her head back, saw the lever, and made a noise of confirmation. Leaning in the requested direction, Harper let Ivor pull the lever, before shuffling around so she could lean on the 'tree' without rubbing her head against the lever.

"Thanks."

* * *

As he had pulled the lever, the final section of redstone lamps had lit up, and a new musical tone rang through the room. Ivor walked over to the lights, and ran his hand along the wall. Finding an upraised section, Ivor did what anyone would do. He smacked his hand into the upraised section.

And of course, pistons began to fire.

Just like in Ivor's hideout, the pistons pulled away sections of wall revealing the entrance to a massive room.

"Well, now we know how Soren got away." Harper said, getting to her feet and walking over to them. She pulled down her hood and goggles, letting her wavy black hair cascade around her shoulders. Ivor nodded, not really paying attention. Somewhere inside he could hear music playing, and he was fairly sure he heard a door swinging shut. "Well, shall we?" Magnus asked, holding out his elbow towards Ellegaard in a joking manner

"We shall." Ellegaard responded, linking her arm with Magnus's.

* * *

Ivor and Ellegaard had found the source of the music.

The group had split up, Harper, Magnus, and Gabriel exploring the main part of the massive 'house' while Ellegaard and Ivor investigated the music.

 _"Don't know if I have ever heard you sing but I hear it"_ The song was currently playing from a jukebox, and the singer was unfamiliar. _"Don't know if I have ever held your hand but I seek it"_

"Do you think that's Lukas singing?" Ellegaard asked, studying the item frames above the jukebox, each one neatly labeled. _"Don't know if I have ever loved but I feel it"_

Ivor shrugged. He was currently wandering around the room collecting clay blocks because of a blue-print he had found. He had three in his inventory currently, and was working on breaking a fourth. "Could be." he said finally.

_"Put the puzzle back together, see what I'm dreaming"_

"I can't believe he's not here." Ellegaard said sadly. Ivor turned towards her, a twinkle in his eyes "The jukebox didn't turn itself on Ellie, Lukas is here somewhere."

_"When I find the pieces"_

* * *

Find the Pieces, as the music disc was labeled, had ended a few minutes ago, and now playing was a disc labeled We Will Be Heroes, which seemed to have multiple singers.

_"Another day, another fight, another chance to make things right"_

"Hey Ellie." Ivor called, his hand was pressed against a wall of purple stained glass, and outside was the natural End, complete with Endermen."That journal we found, where he was talking about that big discovery...do you think he was talking about...them?"

_"We will be strong, the way it should be, ready for the challenge you and me"_

Ellegaard walked over to him, and stare out through the glass at the Endermen. She shuddered and replied "It would make sense, I mean, what else is left in the End? The Order of the Stone defeated the Ender Dragon like...forever ago." Ivor nodded, then turned his head to study the two armor stands. One empty, the other displaying proudly an Enderman costume.

_"We will be heroes, we can change the world if we try"_

"Do you think...?"

* * *

"How do I look?"

Ellegaard looked over at him, shuddered, and quickly averted her gaze. "Well, you certainly look like an Enderman." her nose scrunched up and she muttered "You smell like one too."

Ivor smiled through the mask and said "I shall take that as a compliment."

Ellegaard frowned, still avoiding his gaze "But if you look like an Enderman, well...a very short Enderman, then...won't Lukas look like one too? Look at the size of the empty armor stand, he's got to be in a full size suit from the looks of it, how are you going to find him?"

Ivor grinned and said "I'll build the shape on this blueprint, make him think I'm a real Enderman building it, and when he comes over to investigate, I'll explain!"

Ellegaard for some reason did not look very calmed by this idea.

* * *

Ivor wasn't sure why Ellegaard had thought his idea would fail. He had already placed all five of the clay blocks he had found in the lab, only problem was the blueprint called for six, not five.

Looking around, Ivor could only spot a single clay block in the entire area...and it was in the hands of an Enderman. Slowly, Ivor made his way over to the Enderman, and placed his black covered hands onto the block and carefully eased it out of the monster's hands. The tall black mob stared at it's empty hands, not moving as Ivor walked back to the crafting table look alike and placed down the last clay block. "False proof of Enderman intelligence complete."

Hearing a bone-chilling screech, Ivor turned back to the Enderman he had taken the clay block from and saw it screeching at him, purple eyes glowing furiously as it rallied it's brethren.

"I'm very sorry about this." Said a sudden voice. Ivor whirled around to see an Enderman with blue eyes underneath a purple filter staring at him, one arm pulled back "But it needs to look real."

That was the last thing Ivor heard before the blue eyed Enderman slammed it's fist into him and he lost consciousness.


	18. LUKAS!

Ivor came too with a massive ringing in his ears, and a really sharp pain in his right eye. He could hear footsteps, and through the ringing he thought he could hear someone talking. As the ringing died down, he could hear a new voice, completely unfamiliar. "I don't think it will bruise." Ivor let out a soft groan as he opened his eyes, and then let out a yelp. Right in front of his face was a blond man with bright blue eyes. Trying to scoot backwards, Ivor realized he was on a bed, up against a wall. "Your face, I mean." the man said, completely unfazed by Ivor's freak out. "These suits were built with durability in mind." Reuben, who had been on the other side of the room sniffing at the Enderman suits, bleated happily at the sound of Ivor's voice, and ran over to him, all but jumping into his lap.

"You must be Lukas." Ivor grumbled as the man leaned away from him. The blonde hummed "I am." he confirmed "But must I be? There are times when I think I'd rather be anything but Lukas. A llama for example."

"You have to help me." Ivor said, quickly before the man could go of on a rant about llamas. Lukas arched a brow "I just did." he said, a small smirk dancing across his lips. Ivor's eye twitched. "You punched me. In. The. Face." Lukas shrugged, as though that was perfectly fine. "You upset the endermen. I got you to safety." Lukas turned, walking over to the desk in the corner of the room. "By the way, as far as introductions are concerned, this isn't going very well."

"We're in danger." Ivor said. There would be time to tell Lukas his name later, right now they had a Formidibomb to acquire.

"What else is new?" Lukas muttered, resting a hand on the open pages of a book. "Whatever your issue is, whatever the problem. It has occurred before and it has been solved before."

"I highly doubt that" Ellegaard muttered under her breath.

"Even so...what do you need me for? I've gone out of my way to avoid these sorts of problems. I can barely remember what it looks like up there."

"Help me save the world."

* * *

"Nice to meet you Lukas."

"You look terrible."

A few minutes had passed since Ivor had woken up. So far he'd convinced Lukas to help them, on the premise that Ivor was his friend. Honestly, Ivor was just waiting for a chance to throw this guy in a locked room with a psychiatrist. The others had found them not all that long ago, which was very relieving given Lukas had been about to break into song.

Before any words could be said, Gabriel glanced behind Lukas and Ivor, and his eyes widened before quickly darting downwards, a hand coming up to shelter his gaze.

Ivor frowned, and glanced over his shoulder. Letting out a yelp at the sight, Ivor quickly following Gabriel's example. Endermen from the other side of the glass barrier had begun to teleport into the room. "This is strange..." Lukas said softly. Flicking his gaze upwards, Ivor saw that Lukas was studying the feet of the Enderman closest to him. "They've never been inside before." He turned an accusing glare at Ivor "You've upset them." he snapped, completely unfazed by the Enderman studying him curiously. "You've altered their behavior!"

"Worry about that later," Ivor said "run now!"

* * *

Ivor was ninety percent sure the helmet stunk worse every time he put it on. "Good luck." Lukas said, patting Ivor on the shoulder. The plan was for Ivor to sneak into the Enderman filled room, break the fountains thus flooding the room with water, and lead the group outside where they could go down the massive staircase, which would hopefully be easier than climbing up it.

Ivor nodded to his friends and began to carefully walk through the haunting. Making his way to the fountain with ease, Ivor made sure no Endermen were paying attention, before he quickly broke the wooden block holding the water in place. Water flowed from the opening, and the Endermen began to screech, teleporting upwards to safety. "One fountain down, two to go." Ivor muttered, gaze flicking towards the entrance to the 'house'.

* * *

"Alright, the room's clear." Ivor called back. A few minutes later the rest of the group was standing by him. Lukas was a bit delayed, but he was messing around with his inventory, so Ivor supposed he'd just been grabbing something.

"They're everywhere..." Harper whispered softly staring outside. Ivor followed her gaze and nodded. Endermen filled the woolen world, covering the glow-stone lit area in a black-headed monsters. "How are we supposed to get through this?" Harper continued "Physically or psychologically? If we make it through this..." Ivor did not like that if, but he did like that she was at least kind of speaking in future tense "...well, I can't say this won't become some kind off recurring nightmare."

"Everyone just...hold onto me." Ivor said "I'll guide you through them."

* * *

"INTO THE WATER!"

As they all jumped off of the bridge and into the river flowing through the wool world, Ivor heard the angry screeches of the Endermen following him. Diving underwater, there was a split second of pure silence, before he came back up to the surface gasping. As he gulped in sweet precious air, Ivor could hear Lukas talking "-worried about how flammable my building material was. So I installed a fire-supression system to prevent the whole thing from going up into flames."

"So...there's more water?" Harper asked hopefully. Lukas nodded "Much more. The activator is up there." he lifted one dripping hand out of the water to point at one of the towers Ivor had noticed earlier. Nodding, the Ender-suit clad male began swimming towards it.

* * *

The lever that activated the water was at the top of the tower. Which meant when water came flooding out of the ceiling directly above it, Ivor was swept away by the current. Making his way back to the others, Ivor did his best to rub at his head. The sound of screeching Endermen, as well as the weird humming noise that filled the air whenever they were agitated, was giving him a major headache. Thankfully the bite on his shoulder wasn't hurting too badly, otherwise he would be having a much harder time trying to swim.

Speaking of a hard time swimming, Gabriel wasn't doing very well. Harper had swum over to him and was helping keep his head above the water, but Gabriel just looked like he was about to keel over dead.

"We need to get to the trapdoor before we drown!" Lukas shouted over the sound of the Endermen. Ivor nodded, and swam over to Gabriel's other side. Together he and Harper helped the ill male get down to the trapdoor. Pushing it open right as water filled the room completely.


	19. Super-Bomb

Silence...

And then, in three different spots, six different screams erupted. Well, five screams and one very loud 'BAAAAAAA'.

Ivor stared at his surroundings, head pounding and heart beating wildly. As the fog from the portal slowly faded from his eyes, he realized he was in Lukas's storeroom, a small bed with a weird black glow surrounding it was placed next to him. Lukas was at his side. "Where are the others?" Ivor demanded. Lukas shrugged "Wherever they last slept I suppose. The End Portal doesn't work like a Nether Portal, it returns you to wherever you last slept." Ivor frowned "But I last slept at the same spot as Ellegaard, Magnus, and Harper. And I don't even know when Gabriel last slept" Lukas shook his head "You last slept in my bed in the End. I've set it up so that it is linked to this bed, here in the Overworld, which keeps it from exploding. Your friends should be back here momentarily."

A low groan interupted their conversation, and Ivor turned to the doorway of the bedroom. A zombie was slamming on the door, dead black eyes staring right at Ivor. He shuddered, the bite on his shoulder twinging, and said "So...I may have forgotten to mention. When we were here, we kiiiinda broke your Grinder."

* * *

Ten Iron Golems, five stacks of Rotten Flesh, and roughly six hours later the loot room was clear of monsters and the gang was reunited. Lukas had told them to feel free to loot the chests, and had used the Golems as a staircase to get to some chests hidden away in a cubbyhole in the roof.

"You guys hear that?" Magnus said. He wasn't any worse for the wear after their impromptu visit back home. If anything he was more energetic than he'd been before. "Hear what?" Ivor asked, only half paying attention. His focus was primarily on Gabriel, who was leaning against a red sandstone pillar coughing fiercely. "All that stuff whispering!" Magnus said, like this was obvious. Taking on a ghost like whisper to his voice Magnus added "Take me, take me now!"

Ellegaard grinned, getting in on the fun with her own ghosty voice "I think it's saying 'Ellegaard should get to take more than Magnus'!"

"Aw, come on loot." Magnus whined, giving the chests the most literal pitiful look Ivor had ever seen on the bald teen's face. "I thought we were tight."

"Make sure to be keeping an eye out for gunpowder!" Lukas called "We're going to need it to craft the Formidi-Bomb." Ivor frowned "I thought the Super TNT and Formidi-Bomb were the same thing." Lukas pulled his head out of the chest and turned to stare at him "Well of course not! They're two different names aren't they? Red Sandstone is so much different from Sandstone is it not?"

Ivor lifted his hands defensively and turned away.

* * *

Buttons, Ivor decided, were designed to taunt in the most excruciating way. There was a wooden button sitting on the wall on the far end of the room. Ivor had done everything in the room he could do except push it. He now had eight pieces of gunpowder in his inventory along with an emerald because why not, Ellegaard had glowstone, a spider eye, and a fishing rod, Magnus had stuffed his bag full of just about everything he could reach, and even Gabriel and Harper had gotten in on the fun. When the greatest builder of all time tells you that you can do something, you don't ask questions. You just do it.

Lukas was still rummaging through the upper chests, and so, nothing else left to do, Ivor walked up to the button, and pressed it. He then proceeded to jump backwards, one hand inside of his bag holding onto the hilt of his sword, ready to pull it out. Thankfully, the only thing that happened was the wall split apart, revealing rails, with minecarts already on them. A nearby button on the floor appeared to be the 'start' button, like on a roller coaster.

"Lukas?" Ivor called, looking over his shoulder "I've got the gunpowder, I think we're ready to go." Lukas, sliding down the Iron Golem staircase, grinned "Perfect, here's the Super TNT." he held up a glowing block of TNT. "I apologize about the state of my storage room, it's been a while since I organized everything." Ivor shrugged. Honestly, he didn't see a problem with it. Of course he wasn't a neat freak so...

"So do we just combine the ingredients?" Ivor asked, pulling out the gunpowder which left a gray chalk-like substance over his palms. Lukas yelped, jumping backwards "NO! No, no noooo. The ingredients are highly unstable, just having them at this close of proximity, there is a chance they could blow us all into the sky!"

Magnus took a shuffling step back, and Ellegaard had this expression like 'why are we trusting this guy again?' Gabriel...well Gabriel looked sick, and Harper just looked like she wasn't sure whether to shove Lukas and Ivor together, or to run away screaming like a maniac.

* * *

"INCOMING!"

The sun was setting, the world could almost be described as peaceful...

if it weren't for the giant Witherstorm in the sky and the mobs running for their lives. Seeing a creeper run away from something is not a sight one sees often. It is extremely terrifying however, when you are running in the opposite direction and it looks like the creeper is running directly at you.

With a scream, the occupants of the minecarts flew out of said minecarts as the tracks ended abruptly.

"There you are!" Ellegaard's head snapped upwards, an expression of delight on her face as Olivia ran into sight, a stone sword in her hands and Axel at her side."Glad you could make it." Axel said. Ivor blinked up at him, trying to figure out if that had been sincere, or laced with sarcasm. He honestly had no clue. "Could've used you earlier." Axel continued, punching a zombie with his fist, causing the monster to poof into dust. "Showed up just in time to steal the trophy huh?" He had a massive grin on his face as he said this, and Ivor decided to interpret it as sincerity. Or stupidity. Or possibly both.

"As long as you guys are alright." Ivor muttered, getting to his feet as Lukas rolled off of him.

"Alright?" Axel said, pure bewilderment in his green eyes "Does this look like alright to you?"

"I thought Jesse was coming after you." Ivor admitted, pulling out his own weapon. It was now Olivia's turn to look confused. She opened her mouth to talk, but Axel beat her to it "Haven't seen any sign of Jess." he said with a shrug. Olivia turned to him, jaw dropping "Jesse might be mad at us for the whole...dead thing, but he would never come after us. I know him, he's...he's a kind man" Ivor winced. So apparently Ellegaard hadn't explained everything on her little trip to Redstonia. But there was no time to fill Olivia in on everything she was clueless about. Alright, so it was one thing. But it was a very complex thing, and they were still dealing with monsters, and in the distance, there was a loud screech which meant the Witherstorm wasn't far behind.

"I feel like that thing got bigger." Magnus muttered, holding the stone sword he'd nicked from Lukas's loot room. "It did." Ellegaard said, holding a fishing rod which was the closest thing to a weapon she had on her. "Lukas, we need that Formidi-bomb now." He said, turning to glare at the blonde who was standing just inside the tunnel staring at the Witherstorm.

"Lukas?" Olivia asked, turning her head to follow Ivor's gaze. "Lukas..." her gaze was a mixture of anger, delight, and fear. "It...It's him-you!" Axel said, a grin on his face as he took a step towards Lukas. The blonde flinched, and took a step back, causing Axel to freeze, eyes wide with confusion.

The witherstorm let out another screech, and Ivor pushed down pretty much every emotion but determination. "Time to go." he said "Lukas, give me the TNT, I'm going to craft it and set it inside of the Witherstorm's tractor beam, it should be swallowed before it explodes." Lukas nodded, reaching into his inventory. "The rest of us will build distractions, it may not be much, but it will buy you some time. You must be quick though." Ivor nodded, and turned to go. Before he could, a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Kid wait...You're going to need some protection, take my armor." Axel belonged to the arm, clear determination in his gaze. Before Ivor could say anything, refuse accept, anything, Olivia shook her head "No, take mine, it will protect you better."

* * *

In the end, Ivor ended up with Olivia's Helmet and Leggings, and Axel's Chestplate and Boots. It was very...contrasting on his body, and a bit loose fitting, especially the chestplate, but it left the others with some good armor so he didn't feel too guilty about it. Currently, he was floating in the tractor beam, a crafting table in front of him and gunpowder floating all around. Half swimming half crafting, Ivor just barely managed to craft the bomb, before shoving away from the Witherstorm's massive maw.

As he fell towards the ground, Ivor heard twin cries of pain. Turning his head best he could mid-terrifying fall, Ivor saw that Olivia and Axel had both been slammed into a tree. They were both flashing red, and blood was trickling from Olivia's head, but neither seemed near death.

A feeling of relief flooded Ivor, right before a giant explosion rang through the air, and he landed on the ground, leg letting out a cracking noise that bones should not make ever. Right before he blacked out, Ivor could have sworn he saw Reuben racing towards him, bleating in fear.


	20. Bye With- Wait...no. Never mind

Ivor came to with a wet tongue meeting his cheek. Groaning, he forced his eyes open and found Reuben sitting beside him, licking his face. Kneeling at his feet, Lukas's face was set with grim determination and he was wrapping a splint around Ivor's left leg which was throbbing in pain. Groaning again he dropped his head backwards, which turned out to be a stupid idea because as it turned out, he was propped up against a tree.

"'s it o'er?" he slurred, reaching up to pull Ellegaard's helmet off of his head. Axel nodded, and for the first time Ivor realized that everyone else was circled around him, concern in their eyes. "Look for yourself." Magnus said, holding out a hand. Carefully Ivor took it and eased himself upwards. "Watch your leg." Lukas warned, pulling back. Wrapping one arm around Magnus's shoulder, Ivor limped forwards carefully, and stared at the destruction to the land in front of him. The Witherstorm had exploded from the inside out, massive white structures jutted out from black, and it looked like each head had torn off into its own little section.

"I still can't believe it's actually dead." Ellegaard said softly. She was standing with her arms wrapped around herself tightly. Olivia walked up behind her and rested a hand on her shoulder. Ellegaard leaned into the touch, for the first time not freaking out that she was with her idol.

"You did it..." Harper whispered. Ivor turned to look at her, and his eyes widened. The black haired woman was smiling. Actually smiling. She let out a soft laugh, and ran forwards to hug Ivor.

"About time we got a real win." Magnus's voice in Ivor's ear was extremely annoying, and at the sound of it Harper jumped back, blushing.

Looking down at his body, mainly the splint on his leg, Ivor realized the leggings and boots were gone. A quick glance at Olivia and Axel revealed that they had gone back to their original owners, the latter of which was also now sporting a white bandage wrapped tightly around her head. "Here." Ivor said, holding out the helmet he was still holding for some reason. Standing carefully on the non-broken leg, Ivor pulled away from Magnus long enough to pull off the chestplate he was still wearing. "And here." The two took their armor, with a nod. "You looked good in green." Axel said "although the red kinda ruined it." Olivia snorted, but just shook her head.

The group stood in silence for a while, taking in the beauty of the scene. And then Harper let out a sharp gasp. "Look!" Following where she was pointing, the others all saw what she had seen. "They're alive!" Ivor breathed "The Witherstorm didn't kill them!"

A grin slowly spread across Ivor's face "Come on you guys, we've got a job to do.

* * *

Using a stick as a crutch, Ivor hobbled down the hill, Reuben close at his side. "You guys help the survivors." he said, looking around at the others. "I'm going to try and find people who might be trapped." One by one they nodded, and split up, making their way to the people hobbling out of the carcass, and whispering soothing words.

Walking around a massive tentacle, Ivor found someone trapped underneath it on the other side. Pressing one hand against the black flesh of the body, Ivor used his stick to lift the tentacle off of the man. "Get to safety." he said quickly as the male wriggled free "There are people over there who can help you." The man nodded, whispered a quick "thank you." and began limping towards the others.

A bit deeper in, he found a young woman with an ankle twisted in a way that ankles are just not supposed to twist. "Easy there." Ivor said, helping her up and handing her his stick "Be careful, if you can make it past the huge tentacle out there, look for the blonde guy, he can help you with that." he nodded at his own leg for proof. She gave him a grateful look through the pain flashing through her eyes, and began to hobble away from the carcass.

Half walking half hopping with one hand constantly on the Witherstorm for balance, Ivor next had to push a smaller tentacle off of a man who was bleeding from his nose and arm. "There are people out there who can help you, can you make it out?" The man nodded and began to make his way out, a bit faster than the other people since his legs were intact.

Looking around for another person to help, Ivor's gaze locked on a singular glowing block on the center of what looked to be an altar.

"No..."

* * *

"I don't understand." Ivor whispered. His hands were clenched into fists, his eyes were glued onto a block. The block. The _Command_ Block. "Lukas said the Formidi-Bomb would destroy it, so why does it look fine?"

Carefully, the black haired teen began to limp towards it. Resting a hand on it, Ivor yelped and pulled backwards, as with the contact, the block pulsed fiercely, a shower of sparks flooded outwards, and Ivor was thrown to the ground.

"HELP!" Ivor shouted, fingers digging into the, very disgusting, combination of dirt and black flesh, as the Command Block continued to pulse, acting like a tractor beam and pulling him towards it. "SOMEBODY HE-" he was lifted into the air, flying towards the block, when a hand reached out and grabbed him, jolting him slightly and sending racks of pain into his leg.

"It's alright!" came a new voice. No...not a new voice...a familiar one. Head snapping upwards, Ivor stared into the face of his rescuer.

The face of Petra. Her eyes were not their original blue, they had a strange, creamy pink tint to them, as though she'd been crying.

As she continued to pull him, Ivor finally snapped free of the beam and crashed to the ground, crying out as his leg slammed into the dirt.

Taking deep breaths to get through the pain, Ivor was offered a hand and took it. Petra carefully helped him up, and supported him. Ivor just stared. "I don't understand," he said again "you...how...I...I thought you were dead! I saw you..." he trailed off as he saw Petra's confused look. She was staring at her surroundings, as though she couldn't remember where she was. "What...what happened here?" she asked, gaze flicking to meet Ivor's.

Ivor shook his head "I'll explain later, but first we need to-" a low rumbling cut him off. The black ground around them began to tremble. The sky itself darkened, as though it was afraid.

Afraid of a Witherstorm, that was most definitely not dead.

Ivor and Petra began to slowly back away from the altar where the Command Block was glowing even brighter now. Slowly, the head above it lifted upwards, mouth parting in a furious screech. A screech that was quickly answered to the left...and then the right.

As Ivor watched, the Witherstorm was now not a single monster...but three seperate beings, each with three heads, each screaming for blood.

"We need to go." Ivor said, taking a half step back. Petra seemed frozen, and he couldn't get very far though "Petra, we need to go."

Petra frowned again. She turned her head, pink-blue eyes looking at Ivor in confusion.

"Who...who's Petra?"


	21. Panic and Run!

_Everything in the universe starts out as just a block._

_What becomes of those blocks, is up to those who wield them._

_And in every block their lies the potential to create or destroy._

_Even well laid plans can go awry,the strong can grow weak, and even beloved heroes can fall_

_And although some glimmer of hope may remain..._

_...the threat to this world, to its very existence, is far from over._

* * *

"I don't understand...where am I?"

Ivor could only stare. The redheaded member of the Order of the Stone was walking in a circle, staring at her hands, then up at the three Witherstorms, and then at Ivor, only to circle back to her hands again. "What's going on?" her nose scrunched up and she added "And what is that-" her eyes widened so quickly, if they had been somewhere, anywhere else, Ivor might have laughed as Petra raised one of her arms up to her nose "Never mind...it's me." she stuck out her tongue slightly, then frowned, pulling it back in "But...who is...me?"

"That doesn't matter right now." Ivor said, shaking away the absolute horror that was flooding through him. Resting his hands on her shoulders, Ivor gripped them tightly until the redhead flicked her gaze down slightly to meet his look. "Are you alright?" Ivor asked, blue eyes searching through her own dazed look. Petra frowned "I...I have no idea..." she pulled back and wrapped her arms around herself. "Who...who are you?" she asked, suddenly looking wary.

"IVOR!" Ivor and Petra both flinched as Magnus's voice rang through the area.

"IVOR WHERE ARE YOU?"

"OVER HERE!" Ivor shouted back, turning in the direction of the voices. Turning back to Petra he said "Listen, I know you're confused." Lie. He had no freaking clue what in the name of freaking Herobrine was going on, but he had to get Petra to go with him. "But we need to get away from here. Me and my friends can help you, but only if we leave _right now._ "

* * *

"This way!"

Magnus was leaning out from a small pile of stone and coal ore, waving Ivor and Petra closer. "Ivor!" Ellegaard said with a rush of relief. Then she saw Petra, and her eyes widened "And...Petra?" Gabriel's head poked out from behind Axel, who was glaring at the three Witherstorms with fury in his eyes. "Did you say Petra?" he asked, voice rasping slightly.

Before anything more could be said, a purple glow lit up over their hiding place. The stone and coal began to tremble, and the group backed up a few steps, before whirling around and taking off.

As he was running, a weird buzz filled Ivor's ears, right before an Enderman teleported directly in front of him. Ivor yelped, and quickly shielded his eyes. The Enderman didn't seem interested in him however, and instead had it's head tilted up to study one of the Witherstorms. It teleported again, and Ivor turned to watch it, realizing it was just strolling about in front of the Witherstorms, not at all bothered by the screeching. Continuing to run, Ivor manuevered himself until he was running alongside Lukas. "The Endermen are going the wrong way!" he shouted over the chaos. At the word 'Endermen' Lukas's head snapped towards him, eyes widening, until he skidded to a stop and whirled around, staring at the black monsters completely unfazed by the even bigger black monsters above them.

"I can't stand by and watch this." Lukas said, hands curling into fists. Ivor wanted to point out that running away was not standing by, plus the Endermen could teleport to safety, but even before he opened his mouth he knew it would be pointless...But he had to try.

Making his way back to Lukas, narrowly avoiding a burning bit of log, Ivor said "Listen to me, you've spent years studying them. If they're even half as smart as you think they are, they'll be safe." he said. "So stop staring and get moving!"

"I can't just abandon them!" Lukas retorted "Not after years of study."

"You're head's gonna be abandoning your body if you don't move!" Ivor snapped, officially fed up with the blonde's protesting.

* * *

"We aren't going to be able to outrun it forever." Lukas said. Ivor had finally gotten him to keep running, after the Endermen had started fighting back, pulling blocks out of the Witherstorm bodies. "Not on foot! We need to find a way to move faster, or we're all going to be caught in the tractor beam!"

"Can we build a portal?" Ivor asked. They'd been running for a while, and he was starting to get out of breath. "If somebody has the right materials-"

Ellegaard cut him off "We don't, I haven't seen Obsidian since the End, and its not like any of us have the proper items to mine it."

Behind him, a horse whinnied shortly before racing past Ivor. Gaze locking onto the saddle already on it's back, Ivor grinned "Then we'll use the next best thing."

* * *

"There!" Ivor shouted. Pointing to a bridge that crossed a ravine. "We just need to ride over that..." and of course a flaming wither skull blew up the bridge "...bridge..."

"Let's go!" Ellegaard said, jumping off of her horse. Behind her, Magnus slid off as well, grabbing some pieces of wood and dirt that were now floating on the floor. "We need to build a new bridge, NOW!"

Slowly, they all gathered blocks, and began making a simple hodge-podge bridge. Leading the horses along with them,Petra and Gabriel stayed on their own horses, the latter too sick, the former too confused for either to be much help.

Reaching the other end of the ravine, Ivor turned back to make sure they had all gotten across. Facepalming as he saw that Lukas had built a fancy little design over the end of the bridge. Climbing back onto the horses, Ivor double checked that Gabriel was still behind him, before they all took off.


	22. Hidey Hole Cave & Plans Made

Snow was falling as the group came to a stop. Holding torches to light their path since the moon was still steadily climbing the sky, Axel and Olivia, who didn't look all that pleased about sharing a horse, found a cave for them all to take shelter in. "At least until the sun comes up." was Olivia's reasoning. "Or that...thing gets too close."

"We made it..." Ivor whispered softly, voice filled with disbelief. "We actually survived that thing..." carefully getting off of the white and black horse he'd been riding, Ivor led it and Petra, half asleep on it's back, into the cave where Harper was setting up some stalls for the animals that had carried them so far.

"Ivor..." Ivor turned at the sound of Gabriel's voice. Turning to see his friend, Ivor barely managed to suppress a shudder. Gabriel's dark skin was starting to turn a rather nasty shade of purple, from his wrist clear up to his neck. His eyes were starting to tinge purple and black, almost like the Wither Skeleton Skull he'd shown Ivor earlier. Briefly, Ivor wondered if having Wither was like being bitten by a zombie. But if it was, they had to find a cure quick, because it was far too late to surgically remove all of the infected skin. Gabriel coughing snapped Ivor out of his thoughts, and he tilted his head "What is it?" he asked, keeping his voice low. Harper was busy convincing Petra to climb off of the horse, but he figured it would be best to stay quiet anyways. "If she was inside the Witherstorm...she might have Wither Sickness too."

Ivor frowned "I don't know..." he said slowly "She's never acted the way you've been acting."

* * *

"you...you're the one that rescued me"

Petra was staring at Ivor from across the cave. Axel and Olivia were standing next to her, as if trying to convince themselves that she really was there. Walking over to Ivor, Petra completely missed the anguished looks on the other Order of the Stone members. "Tell me please, what is going on?"

As Ivor struggled to find the words, Petra continued "I only remember darkness. Then you were there, and we were riding horses..." she shook her head.

"You were caught in the Witherstorm." Ivor said finally, rubbing the back of his neck. "Trapped."

"For how long?" Petra asked, strange discolored eyes staring into Ivor's midnight blue orbs.

"Long enough." Ivor said, lowering his gaze, unable to meet hers anymore. "long enough."

* * *

How things could have escalated so quickly Ivor had no clue. "What happened out there?" Lukas snapped, glaring at Jesse. Petra was huddled back against the stone wall, hands pressing against it tightly as though she was trying to melt into it. "Why is that thing still alive? My instructions were clear, and you were the one in the middle of that thing. What. Went. Wrong."

Ivor glared right back "You tell me!" he snapped. Lukas took a step back, eyes flying wide "Excuse me?"

"Well you're the one that thought we could destroy the Command Block with a big old bomb!"

"So the Command Block is still there?" the fire seemed to have drained out of Lukas, and he simply looked resigned now.

Ivor nodded, and Lukas's hands curled into fists. Unexpectly, he whirled and smashed his fist into a block of coal ore. "I should have thrown that damn block into the Void when I had the chance!" he shouted. Taking a deep breath, Lukas took his other hand and rubbed the space between his eyes "I need to think." with that he walked out of the cave.

* * *

"That symbol..."

Lukas had been out of the cave for about five minutes. Ivor had been about to go after him, when Petra spoke up. "I recognize it..." Her eyes were locked on the Architects symbol on Harper's hip. "I've been wearing this outfit since before this whole thing began." Harper said without looking at Petra. Her gaze was fixed outside where Lukas was sitting with his feet dangling over the edge of a cliff.

Petra shook her head "No." she said insistently "there were others with that symbol...inside the blackness. I saw them...and again when I was thrown from that...that monster." Her breathing began to be irregular. Her hands flew to her forehead and she groaned. Axel ran forwards and caught her right before she collapsed to the ground. "It...it hurts...whenever I try to remember...everything hurts..."

"Ivor." Harper said, walking over to Ivor before he could help Petra "If what she just said is true...if Mevia, Otto and Hadrien are alive, if there's even the slightest chance...I _have_ to go and find them. They might need my help!"

Ivor shook his head "You can't just up and leave Harper, we need you." "They might need me more!" she snapped, flying to her feet.

"I'm asking you as a friend Harper." Ivor said, his tone soothing "please stay. We need you."

Harper stared at him, shoulders relaxing "Do...do you really mean that?" Ivor nodded, without hesitation. "We're all in this together. Whatever happens next, there's no way we'll be able to do it without you."

Harper smiled "thanks Ivor." Ivor smiled back "no problem. I'm gonna go check on Lukas, he's been out there a while."

* * *

Making his way outside, Ivor realized that Lukas had vanished. Frowning, he looked around, only to hear a loud angry voice ring through the night's silence. "That's what I said isn't it?" Turning his head sharply to the left, Ivor saw a small rise with ladders leading upwards, and on top of it two forms waving their arms and apparently shouting at each other.

"Just as you helped us once before? I thought you were dead for years!" that voice sounded like Lukas. "This isn't about the past!" that voice again...it sounded familiar, but Ivor couldn't place it. "It's about the future, which there will be none of if those things continue to eat the world!"

"There's three of them now, eating the world at three times the pace!"

"You say that like it's my fault!"

"IT IS YOUR FAULT!"

Making his way over to the ladder, Ivor slowly began to climb up. "Oh for once, just once, take responsibility!"

As Ivor lifted his head enough to see that the two shouting figures were Lukas...and Jesse.

"Lukas you need to listen to me!" Jesse shouted, eyes blazing. "And what good has ever come from that?" Lukas shouted back.

Reaching the top of the ladder, Ivor held his hands into the air to appear peaceful. Even so Jesse's eyes widened and he jumped slightly. Placing a hand over his heart he grumbled "You shouldn't scare people like that...not at this time of night."

"Ignore him Ivor." Lukas growled "He's been following us this entire time."

"It's not like that." Jesse's voice sounded sincere for the very first time since Ivor had met him. "You need to hear me out." Jesse's hands ran through his hair as he continued. The man looked genuinely stressed "What you don't understand is you're all in very grave danger."

Lukas scoffed, and waved his hand in the direction the Witherstorms were in "Obviously."

"No, I mean specifically this group." Jesse said, pointing to the cave "The storms aren't acting randomly. They're following Petra!"

"Petra?" Ivor repeated, eyes widening as slowly the pieces of the puzzle clicked together.

"I..." Jesse groaned into his palms "I programmed it to follow her amulet."

Ivors hands slowly reached into his inventory. Pulling out the amulet, all five gems glowing fiercely Ivor said "You mean this amulet?"

* * *

After making their way back down to the cave, the three Witherstorms screeching furiously just in the distance. "There's a reason the storms have been following us." Ivor concluded. He'd been trying to explain everything for the past five minutes, but it was a little hard to organize seven people when one of them was sick and another was an amnesiac. Holding his hand out to point at the shadows where Jesse had been sulking Ivor said "Jesse says it's because-"

"Jesse?" Olivia asked, eyes wide. Brushing past Ivor she made her way in front of the brown haired man, who flinched slightly, and took a step back. Ignoring that, Olivia walked until she was standing directly in front of Jesse, him refusing to meet her gaze. Olivia lifted her hand upwards, and brushed it lightly across his cheek. Whether he meant to or not, Jesse leaned into the touch. "It really is you..."

"It's..." Jesse took a shuddering breath. "It's good to see you 'liv." He closed his eyes, and simply kept his head like that, leaned slightly into her palm. As such he didn't notice Petra, a rather dopey smile on her face, making her way forwards. "Hello!" Petra chirped. Jesse jumped backwards, hands flying to his inventory and coming up with a potion bottle. Before he could raise his arm to throw it though, Petra thrust out her hand, stupid smile still there, and said "My name is Petra!"

Jesse's eye twitched. "Somebody pinch me." he mumbled.

Ivor, ever happy to oblige, walked over to Jesse and punched him in the face.

* * *

After the nosebleed stopped, really, everyone made such a fuss over that.

Well...everyone but Magnus, he just grinned and tried to high-five Ivor.

Anyways, after the bleeding ceased Ivor said "We need to keep moving. If the Witherstorms are all on our tail, then we can't stay anyplace for long. We've got to make it back to Lukas's place, which means doubling back." They'd decided to try and use the Witherstorm command to follow the amulet to their advantage, by bringing it to the place they knew had the most Endermen, which would then destroy it.

"I...may have something that might assist with breaking the Command Block." Jesse said "An Enderman won't be able to pick it up, and it will just keep summoning the Witherstorms back to life, only more every time you kill it."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get it!" Ellegaard said, hands fussing with her shirt.

"Only one problem." Jesse said "It's at my lab...which is...rather far away."

Ivor ran a hand through his hair and said "Then we split up, you guys go get the weapon, I'll-"

"I'll take the amulet." Ivor turned, Magnus was the one who had spoken. His face was set into stony determination.

"You can't!" Ellegaard cried, eyes flying wide with horror.

"I can." Magnus replied calmly. "I have to."

"You'll have three Witherstorms chasing after you." Ivor said slowly. "Are you sure?" the amulet was already in his hands. Magnus nodded "If things get too intense I'll duck into the Nether for a while. It can't track me there. I'm tired of always being the selfish one."

Ivor nodded, a small smile gracing his lips. Holding out the amulet, he pressed it into Magnus's palms. Magnus's eyes widened, like he hadn't expected Ivor to agree that easily, then he grinned, and set it carefully into his inventory. "You guys go get that super weapon." Magnus said "I'll meet you back at Lukas's place."

Axel walked over to Magnus and patted his back. As he spoke, Magnus looked pretty much like he might die "You don't got to do this alone kid. I'm going with."

Gabriel took a step forwards, but Ivor cut him off "No. Gabe, you need to stay here, it...it isn't safe for you."

"I'll stay with him." Olivia said. Ivor turned to her, tilting his head. "Ivor, I'm...I'm not a fighter. I'll keep guard over your friend, turn this place into a real fortress. We'll find you guys, after those things are dead."

Harper led the horses out, and Ivor nodded. Climbing onto a white one with a dappled gray pattern on its back he turned to Magnus and Axel "Meet you at Lukas's all right?"

Magnus grinned, and placed his hands on his hips "Not if I see you first."


	23. The Swamps

It took them a full week of travel before Ivor finally realized that 'rather far away' meant on the other side of the freaking world. He'd tried to ask Jesse if they were there yet for the first two days, then the stupid idiot had thrown a splash potion of weakness at him, and he'd barely been able to move let alone talk. He'd discovered he was able to glare though. That was about all he could do. Once they realized the potion wasn't really hurting him, the others had left him and Jesse alone. The only good thing about the ride was that it gave Ivor's leg time to heal, and by the time the sixth day rolled around he'd been able to take off the cast.

They were on their eighth day when Petra finally grumbled behind Ivor "My rear is insanely sore."

"We've been riding practically forever." Harper said, nodding to the redhead.

Up ahead, the two members of the Order of the Stone still with the main group were having an argument and didn't seem to hear them. Ivor tapped his legs against the flank of the horse he was riding and it let out a whinny, speeding up slightly so that he could hear. "-we cannot go to the Far Lands!" Lukas snapped, glaring daggers at Jesse who seemed completely impervious to said glare. "They're not just the edge of our world," the blonde continued "but the very limits of our comprehension."

Jesse scoffed and said "Oh please. The Far Lands are a happy accident. Nature's way of keeping life interesting."

"No. No. No. No." Lukas protested, shaking his head every time he said no. "They are perilous and unpredictable. Floating points, unknown sounds, lava flowing upwards, these are not matters to be toyed with!"

"Why are you so down on the Far Lands Lukas?" Ivor asked, completely and utterly unable to stay silent. "They sound awesome!"

"See," Jesse said, a massive smirk splaying on his face as he turned his head to nod at Ivor. "Ivor thinks the Far Lands are cool."

Lukas sighed, and began to talk as though they were all two year old villagers. "The Far Lands lie at the very edge of all things. Where logic gives way to chaos. They're a dangerous place to visit, let alone construct a laboratory!" his voice rose as he spoke until he was all but shouting whilst continuing to glare at Jesse, who just cackled like this was a hilarious joke.

"Do these two never stop fighting?" Ellegaard grumbled, catching Ivor's attention. "I don't know." Petra replied, apparently thinking that Ellegaard had been talking to her. "But I'm frankly too hungry to care." Ellegaard sighed "We all are." she said. She looked around the group, and then pulled on the reins, causing her horse to stop with a high pitched whinny. As the others stopped and turned to look at her Ellegaard bit her lip and said slowly "Maybe...maybe we should turn back."

Jesse shook his head "We've come to far to do I agree that the journey has been long. Everyone could use a break. See if you can find any seeds. We have enough bones here to turn it to wheat near instantly. Just don't linger too long. The Far Lands are just beyond this swamp."

* * *

"Potato you are coming with me." Ivor muttered, wading through the dark swamp water. Carefully pulling the plant out of the earth, Ivor spotted another set of the crop growing a short ways away, and he quickly pocketed the one potato, before he made his way towards the other ones. "Like they say." Ivor said softly "Two potatoes are better than one...at least I think they say that."

He looked around a bit longer, but only ended up with two more potatoes, bringing his number to four. "Should probably take these..." Ivor's words died in his throat as he saw a small building. Or, more specifically, a cake inside of a window of a small building.

"A witches hut"

Ivor absolutely did _not_ scream in terror when Jesse appeared behind him. Robe completely dry the brown haired man's green eyes were locked on the building. "We should stay clear of it." Jesse continued, ignoring Ivor's terror. "Nothing good ever comes when witches are involved." he had a sneer on his face, and absentmindedly his left hand went up to his right shoulder and rubbed it, as if remembering an old injury.

"But-" Ivor protested, arms shooting upwards to point and wave "A cake! That would be enough to feed everyone!"

"It isn't worth it Ivor." Jesse said, shaking his head "Witches _hate_ trespassers." He nodded at Ivor's pocket where he'd shoved the potatoes for easier carrying. "Besides. There are plenty of potatoes around."

As Ivor hesitated, a high pitched cackle rang through the murky silence. Ivor jumped, and whirled to the side in time to see a purple robed figure vanish behind a tree. "Was that a...?" Jesse nodded, coming up closer and resting a hand on Ivor's shoulder. "Ivor" he said, speaking soothingly but definitely quieter than before. "Listen to me. We should not be here. Witches are very strong, especially against those without a potion immunity which I doubt you have, what with it being so rare, not to mention they know swamps much better than I do."

Ivor bit his lip, looking between the cake in the hut and where he'd seen the witch.

_what to do..._

* * *

In the end, Ivor had decided to agree with Jesse. Potion immunity was very rare, and he doubted any of his friends had it, considering how rare it was, and given Petra's current state, if a witch was to follow them he doubted she would be able to assist much in fighting. None of them were really fighters honestly, except for maybe Lukas and Jesse.

This turned out to be a good idea, for when he climbed back up the rise that overlooked where he'd last left the others, an army of skeletons and zombies was drawing closer. Ellegaard, Magnus, Harper, Lukas, and Reuben were all trying to fight, but only a quick glance revealed it to be a losing battle.

"Let's go!" he shouted, running down the hill. Reuben looked up at him and bleated happily, ears wagging slightly. "Everyone on the horses let's move!"

"Where's Jesse?" Lukas demanded as he used an iron sword to block an arrow. Ivor ran a hand through his hair as he helped Petra onto the dappled brown horse. "He split off from me, told me he needed something. He said the Far Lands are just beyond the swamp. He'll meet us there, and if he can't at your place."

"WHAT?" Harper shouted, her arrow flying out of control as she stared, slackjawed, at Ivor.

Lukas shook his head "stupid-idiotic-moron-" he continued cursing but Ivor chose to tune him out, wincing slightly as he discovered he couldn't quite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a bit of explination of Potion Immunity: Way back in the Notch Era (first hundred years after creation of the world - to be explained further in my upcominc fic) Witches weren't evil and basically...intermarried with humans and villagers. In their bloodlines, there was an immunity to potions. Thus, any of their children and their children and so on, developed the Potion Immunity irregularity. Some see it as a curse, others a blessing. What it does is the time a potion normally effects you is cut in half, so if it's for ten seconds for a normal person, to someone who has PI it is only five seconds. This can be the difference between life and death. As the witches slowly turned evil at the dawn of the Destruction Era (again to be explained in a different fic I'm just using it here because it's my headcanon that is bleeding into here lol) with the influence of Herobrine, they stopped doing the whole intermarriage thing. As such the bloodlines died down as their children turned to witchery, going as far as to strike themselves with lightning to be turned into witches. Only a few remain in the present era.


	24. The Far Lands

They'd ridden for almost a full night cycle before they finally made it out of the swamp. "I think we lost them." Ivor said, glancing over his shoulder. Alright, so maybe they'd lost the mob army a while ago...but it had been dark and now that the sun was coming up he felt better about the situation. Turning his head back to the scene in front of him, his jaw dropped slightly and he whispered "wow..."

"I see your wow..." Harper said, coming up behind him and staring "and raise it to a wwwooooooooowwwww"

They were staring in front of a massive wall of dirt and stone. Ores were scattered about, and Ivor could see an absolute ton of iron and gold. Water was flowing up and down at the same time, and there was a creeper walking sideways on the wall like a spider.

"It's like we're at the edge of the world" Ellegaard said, nudging her horse a bit closer to Ivor and Harpers.

"Actually..." Lukas hummed, looking over the wall of floating blocks. "We seem to be at the corner of it." He slid off of the horse, took off the saddle and set it into his inventory. Spreading his arms wide he said "Welcome to the Far Lands my friends."

* * *

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" Lukas asked. They'd started walking closer to the glitch wall, and were currently passing a tree with cobblestone leaves, a waterfall, with sparkling lava surprisingly not burning the plants around it. Ivor nodded, and Lukas continued "Stretching skywards in all its glory...like a monument to chaos itself."

"Lukas...have you been here before?" Ellegaard asked, taking a moment from watching Petra wander over to a pig that had cow spots. Lukas shook his head "Nor here specifically, but I have visited the Far Lands before. The Order of the Stone traveled far and wide in its hayday."

"Incredible..." Petra whispered, and even though that particular statement seemed to be aimed at the cow-pig and not at Lukas's words, Ivor still nodded. "You can say that again" he muttered. Petra straightened and tilted her head at him "Incredible?" she said, although this time it was more of a question than a statement. "That's not what he-" Ellegaard began, before just shaking her head, a small smile tugging at her lips. "My fault." Ivor said, smiling back at the redstone specialist "I should have expected that, really."

"How can Jesse live here?" Harper asked, yelping a bit as rain began pouring on her head, only to vanish when she moved forwards two blocks. "I mean, it's one thing to build a wool world in the end, but this..." she shook her head, eyes staring at the sky as rain started way up high, only to stop before it reached the ground.

"Oh I highly doubt he actually lives here." Lukas said as they continued walking "He most likely only comes here for his most secretive research. Whatever Ivor is hiding in here, it will be well guarded.

* * *

The cave they'd decided to enter had been lit up with redstone lamps, and had iron bars scattered around it. It looked like someone had tried to forge the look of the Far Lands, while still obviously trying to mark the cave.

Harper was fidgeting with her robe again and when Ivor turned a questioning glance at her she said softly "I'd feel better about all of this if Magnus and Gabriel were with us." Ellegaard nodded "I know what you mean." Reuben let out a sad bleat, and Ivor paused to bend down, rubbing the lamb's ears and around his horn nubs gently.

Lukas had a strange look in his gaze as he said "We should keep moving." Ivor didn't say anything, but got to his feet and followed the blond man."

* * *

"Is this...a maze?"

The cave they'd entered had been insanely dark for a while, but as the light from outside faded, a new light began to appear in their vision. Also in their vision was a large wall of cobblestone with a single entrance. From the looks of it the wall was about five blocks tall, and only one block wide. Vines grew along the wall, and in places it seemed to have endured a creeper explosion. And in the spots where they could see in, it definitely looked like a maze.

"It would appear so." Lukas said with a sigh, "And a massive one at that. If Jesse used the Command Block to build this, who knows what dangers it holds?"

"So..." Harper said, thrumming her fingers on a block of gravel with a daisy blooming out of it "Maybe we shouldn't wander into the world's hardest maze without a guide?"

"Regrettably, this seems to be the only way forwards." Lukas replied, giving the black haired Architect a sideways glance.

"There has to be another way." Ellegaard protested "A secret door, or...I don't know...some way around. There's no way Jesse goes through this whole maze every time he needs to get to his lab!"

Ivor nodded at Ellegaard "Look for another way through." he said "If we can't find one, then we'll go in. But only after we're sure there's no alternative."

* * *

"Climb the vines!"

Everyone instantly went for the vines they were closest to and began climbing. Hordes of mobs had come out of nowhere. Zombies with skeleton faces, Creepers with eight eyes, monsters that could only exist in the Far Lands. As the group reached the top of the walls, Ivor realized there was one rather large problem. Ellegaard had grabbed Reuben so that was fine, but Ellegaard, Lukas, Harper, Petra, and Reuben...were all on the other side of a massive gap.

"Well...that worked I suppose." Lukas said, eyeing the gap. Harper frowned "But...now what? We're all separated!"

Ivor turned, and spotted a small building sitting in a patch of sunlight. He pointed towards it and said "That must be the lab. Let's just stay up here and try to get to it. I'll meet you guys on the other side."

* * *

"What the heck is this thing?" Ivor muttered. He'd gotten out of the maze with only a small bruise from a potion of weakness from a witch combined with a spider flying at his face. He was now in front of a massive pit that looked like it went down clear to Bedrock, and the only possible way across was a strange contraption made of redstone torches, slime, pistons, and boats. There were also some pieces that seemed to be missing.

"Hello?" Ivor jumped, and nearly fell into the pit at the sound of Ellegaard's voice. "That you Ellie?" he called. A few seconds later the pale skinned female poked her head out from the rubble and let out a breath of relief. "Ivor, thank goodness." Reuben bleated, and trotted out of the maze alongside Ellegaard, making his way over to Ivor, the lamb bleated again and rubbed his head against Ivor's leg. "I'm so glad to see you guys." Ivor said, bending down to cradle Reuben. "Us too." Ellegaard said "I thought Reuben and I would be stuck in there forever. We had to split up when these...Ender-Zombies started showing up." Ellegaard shuddered.

"Hey, do you think you could fix this thing?" Ivor asked, trying to distract her "I think it might be our only way across. Ellegaard tilted her head and walked over to the strange machine, studying it and on occasion poking it.

"It's some kind of flying barge." Ellegaard said finally, taking a step back and crossing her arms. "It probably could get us across, if it weren't broken. It's in really bad shape, and it's really complicated."

Ivor frowned, and poked one of the slime blocks. Yup. Still as disgusting as he remembered. "You can fix it though, right?" Ellegaard bit her lip "I don't know." she admitted "It looks way out of my league. If I'd been able to study with Olivia more then maybe but..." she shook her head. Ivor smiled, and walked over to her. Placing a hand on her shoulder he said "You don't need to train under someone else to be an amazing redstone engineer Ellie, you've got this. You have what it takes to fix this thing, you just need to believe."

* * *

Ellegaard, with a little help from Ivor, had just put down the last block on the flying machine, when shouts from the maze drew their attention. A half second later, Lukas, Harper, and Petra shot out of the maze. Following them? Offically the weirdest mashup of mobs Ivor had ever seen. They had exposed bones and flesh, kind of like the Zombie Pigmen Ivor had seen in the Nether. But they were also screeching like Endermen and shooting arrows. Petra had a hole in the blue scarf tied to the top of her head, although thankfully it hadn't seemed to pierce her skull.

"Everybody on!" Ivor shouted, heaving Reuben onto one of the two boats. Ellegaard joined him, and within a few seconds they were all loaded up. "I hope this works" Ivor muttered, pulling out his flint and steel. Clacking them together, the boat began to rumble as part of it caught fire. Then, the machine began to move and they were off, gliding smoothly over the emptiness and headed for the lab.

"Hey Ivor?" Ellegaard said, drawing Ivor's attention off of the strange mobs that were following them only to fall into the pit. "Thanks...for everything you said back there. It really helped." Ivor smiled, and nodded at her "No problem."

Petra had her head tilted, studying the machine, and she said slowly "I...I think I remember something. Didn't...didn't Olivia build something like this once?"

Lukas grimaced, but nodded "In the Nether, we used it to get over a massive lava lake." Petra hummed, and then she gasped, eyes widening "That's right, you were terrified of it!"

Lukas laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head "Stuff and nonsense Petra, you're...you're combining memories." Petra shook her head stubbornly. "No, I'm positive, you were trembling for the whole ride." Ivor arched a brow and Lukas, who instantly protested, and decided not to point out the fact that he was shaking like a piglet.

"I suppose I...could be mistaken." Petra said. She had this smirk on her face as she said it, like a cat who knows they've got a mouse trapped.

Lukas scowled "I liked you better when you had amnesia." he grumbled.


	25. The Basement

"We should be careful." Ellegaard warned. They'd made it across the pit and were now inside of Ivor's lab. On the outside it looked pretty much like a normal house. On the inside, it was the Speaking Hall basement all over again. Books, cobwebs, and potions were scattered around pretty much everywhere. "There are probably booby traps everywhere in here."

Ivor nodded "Fan out, and keep an eye out for that enchanted book." The others nodded and they split up. Ivor stayed with Reuben,and everyone else went off on their own.

* * *

After ten minutes of absolutely no luck, Ivor decided to check in on the others. Wandering around until he found Harper, Ivor took a deep breath and made his way over. "Hey Harper." He said softly "Having any luck?" Harper's hand, which had been splayed over several books, dropped down to her side and she turned, shaking her head. Gray eyes lifting to meet Ivor's dark blue, Harper said "No. But...honestly I've been a bit distracted." Ivor arched a brow "Oh?" He asked "By what?" Harper snorted "I think you meant what not by." she muttered, before sighing and adding "Petra, the Architects, people getting Wither Sickness and Amnesia, questioning Lukas's sanity..." she shook her head and sighed again "Look, don't get me wrong. I'm glad I came with you, I'm just...I'm just scared for everyone. For them, for us...for everybody."

Ivor smiled and at his side Reuben bleated quietly and nuzzled Harper's knee which was about as high up as he could reach. "You're a good friend Harper." Ivor said quietly "The fact that you're always thinking about others says a lot." Harper's lips twitched upwards and a small laugh spilled out. "Well" she said, smile turning coy "I like my friends. That's why they're my friend's in the first place."

Ivor grinned and said "Either that, or you like that they say nice things about you." Harper laughed and turned her head to nod at the bookshelves. "I think Jesse's only friends were these books."

Ivor shrugged "I guess being an angry loner leaves you with plenty of time to read."

Harper flashed him a grin "Tell me about it." she squinted at the books, and started to read aloud some of the titles " _Now They Were Three_ , _Fingerpainted Bruises_ , _Rebel of Sky City, Secrets..._ There must be a thousand books here."

"See any that just scream 'enchanted book'?" Ivor asked hopefully. Harper shook her head "No. Sorry. I'll keep looking around over here." Ivor nodded, and walked away.

* * *

Ivor made his way over to Ellegaard and smiled at the dark haired female. "Had any luck?" he asked when he got close enough. Ellegaard shook her head sadly. "Not really, Jesse has so many books, and there's only a few of us looking." her shoulder's slumped "How did we get so split up?" she asked, hands fidgeting with her shirt "I feel like we're spreading ourselves too thin. I miss how things used to be. That was...fun. Kinda. Almost."

Ivor smiled reassuringly and said "Well, Harper is still here. For a moment there, back at the cave, I thought she was going to leave us too."

"I'm glad you talked her out of it." Ellegaard said, nodding in Harper's general direction "She's smart. I like having her around. She's pretty good with redstone too."

"And she has excellent hair."

the words were out of Ivor's lips before he could stop himself, and now he just wanted to go and jump into the pit outside because of the look Ellie was giving him. He could feel the blush marching up his pale skin and turning his face beet red.

Ellegaard looked quite like she wasn't sure how to react, but she finally just chuckled, shook her head, and said "She does, doesn't she?"

Ivor let out a breath of relief and smiled "This is why we get along." he said, before turning around and _hastily_ making his exit.

* * *

Ivor sought out Lukas next. "Find anything yet?" he asked, ever hopeful.

Lukas snorted, and waved at the bookshelves that he'd been glaring at when Ivor had found him "In this mess?" he scoffed "It's as though Jesse learned nothing from my lectures on organizational methodology."

Ivor decided not to say anything, although personally he doubted he would learn anything from that kind of lecture either.

"If only he hadn't run off at that confounded swamp!" Lukas continued, completely missing the look on Ivor's face "He could just tell us where the blasted book is." the blonde ran a hand through his hair with a groan. "There's neither rhyme nor reason to how these are sorted. Finding anything in here is impossible."

"Tedious maybe" Ivor said, resting a hand on the other man's shoulder and trying quite hard not to squeal outwardly that he was actually touching a member of the Order of the Stone. "But not impossible."

Lukas arched a brow and studied Ivor for a few minutes. Finally he let out a sigh and said "Fine. I shall continue this monotonous search. But I reserve my right to complain about it!"

Ivor grinned "Deal."

* * *

While he was talking to Lukas, Reuben had wandered away and when Ivor found him the lamb was sniffing at a fireplace which had lava flowing downwards behind orange glass panes. "Reuben what are you doing?" he asked, lifting up the black and white lamb and carrying him away from the fireplace. "You're going to get yourself cooked! Stay. Away. From. Lava." as he set down his friend, Reuben bleated in protest, but waddled off a bit ways away from the lava.

Tilting his head at the fireplace, wondering if there was a way to lamb-proof it, Ivor spotted some red dust sparkling from a hole in the wall. "Hey Ellie." he called, earning the pale skinned woman's attention. "I think there's some redstone over here."

* * *

"Time to see what this sucker does." Ivor said. He'd poked around in Jesse's stuff, feeling completely guiltless given everything he'd gone through, and had found the resources to make a lever, and a new sword since his stone one was starting to get worn out. This one was iron, and was definitely a lot sharper than anything he'd ever handled before, which was why it was tucked safely away at the bottom of his bag.

Placing the lever near the redstone as Ellegaard had instructed, Ivor pulled it and shuddered as pistons once again began to fire. Taking a step back, Ivor caught the sight of the lava vanishing out of the corner of his eye, right before the glass panes were pulled away and a large doorway opened up, stairs rising up out of the floor leading downwards. Lukas was the only one who didn't groan at the sight of said stairs.

"Why would you build a secret passageway in a house that no one visits?" Harper questioned, placing her hands on her hips. Ivor shot her a grin, which definitally didn't go unnoticed by Ellegaard who rolled her eyes "More like why wouldn't you? Secret Passageways are cool!"

Harper shrugged "Good point."

Ivor stepped into the passage, and Reuben followed him quickly. Lukas entered as well, and as they began to climb down, Ivor stumbled over something that he couldn't see. In an instant, the fireplace closed back up. Ivor whirled around and ran back up the steps, pounding his feet on the stone, then quickly retreating as orange and yellow splotches flicked through the small cracks, revealing that the lava had turned back on. "Are you guys alright?"

"We're fine!" Ellegaard shouted back, her voice muffled "But the lever isn't working anymore!"

Ivor turned to look at Lukas, but the blonde just shrugged "I'm a builder, not an engineer." he hissed. Ivor rolled his eyes, and turned back to the wall, shouting "Stay there, we'll head down and see what we can find."

* * *

The stairs led into a massive room, filled with strange objects Ivor had never seen before. "What is all this?" he asked, turning to Lukas who looked as stunned as he. Ivor turned away, right before Lukas let out a sharp, surprised laugh. Ivor turned back to him, arching a brow curiously as the blonde man said "Incredible! So he's the one who took them from us. To put them all in one place." he shook his head, a smile on his face. "Uh...took what exactly?" Ivor asked, tilting his head slightly.

"The treasures of the Order of the Stone." Lukas responded, waving to the items placed on pedestals around the room. A silvery white tear-shaped item, a glowing blue block, a collection of blue pebbles, a block of what looked like hardened ice, a colorfully decorated block, but in the center, on the largest pedestal, was clearly the item of honor. A large potion that seemed to have a purple inner glow. "The stories I could tell about these dusty old things..." Lukas said softly, resting his hand on the pebbles.

"I don't see any books here though..." Ivor said slowly, looking over the items again and spotting a yellowish block that seemed to be dripping with water, right next to a duplicate of it that was dry. Next to that was a door, and on a wall near it was a set of five hoppers. "Maybe through there?" He started towards the door, but Lukas shaking his head caught his attention. "Don't bother trying." he said "Those are iron doors, if they aren't open, you'll never get them that way without some sort of redstone signal."

Ivor hummed, and turned to study the hoppers. "I wonder..." he muttered, turning his head towards the items in the center of the room. They seemed to be the most important, so perhaps they were the key to opening the door?

Making his way over to the tear-shaped items, he waved Lukas over and asked "What are these?" Lukas smiled wistfully "Ghast Tears" he replied "From our first official mission as the Order of the Stone. We fought those Ghasts for hours. These tears were our reward. They say a Ghast cries only once in its lifetime, and said tears have regenerative abilities. I've seen Jesse use them more than once in Potions of Regeneration. I'm surprised he didn't use this one as well."

"Whoa..." Ivor muttered. As Lukas started to turn away, Ivor reached out and snatched up the Ghast Tears, sliding them into his inventory. Lukas arched a brow "What are you doing?" Ivor blinked "uh...taking this really cool rare item? I mean we might need it to open the door." Lukas gave him a skeptical look, but let him be.

"So...why does Jesse have the treasures of the Order of the Stone?" Ivor asked, as he continued to look over the items. "Did you give them to him?"

Lukas sighed, and ran his hand through his hair "It's...a long story. But no, we did not give them to him. He...well, I'm not sure how much you have pieced together Ivor, but after the Ender Dragon we believed Jesse to be dead. Apparently he wanted things that way as I certainly did not know he was alive until you told me. Of course, he has every right to let us believe he is dead after..." he shook his head "never mind. A few months after the...incident, Olivia, Axel, and Petra contacted me, telling me that the treasures they had kept were stolen. Mine had been as well. I just assumed that it was thieves. Apparently it was Jesse."

Ivor nodded, filing the information away, before making his way over to the long-necked bottle. "What kind of a potion is this?" Lukas shook his head "You won't believe me, but that came from the Ender Dragon. I saw it only briefly, but Jesse found a way to collect the breath of the dragon." as he walked away, Ivor picked up the bottle, and watched it shrink in size as it entered his inventory.

Making his way over to the glowing block, Ivor tilted his head at it, and then widened his eyes "Am I crazy or is this a Sea Lantern?" Lukas grinned "Ah, the very same one the Order crafted all those years ago. We were so green back then." he chuckled, and reached a hand out to touch the blue block "It looks just as bright as the day we crafted it." Ivor nodded at the pebbles "From Prismarine right?" Lukas nodded "Correct, that must be all that was leftover." Ivor quickly scooped up a handful of the pebbles, and then once they were inside of his inventory he added the Sea Lantern.

"So where'd the Packed Ice come from?" Ivor asked, nodding at the last item in the center. He'd seen it once before, at an Endercon that had been centered around an Ice Spikes biome. Everyone had gone home freezing, but agreeing it had been worth it. "We brought it back from an Ice Spikes Plains Biome we found." Lukas replied "It was colder there than anywhere we had ever been. But Axel slipped so many times, our laughter kept us warm." Lukas nodded slowly, and fell silent, lost in the past. Finally he turned back to Ivor and said "It was then we knew that we were ready to face the Dragon."

* * *

The items had been the key, just like Ivor had thought. By placing them in the hoppers in the order they had been collected, had triggered the redstone signal keeping the door shut, and it swung open with a groan. "Let's go get that enchanting book." Ivor said. Lukas nodded, and followed him through the door. And what they found on the other side was absolutely amazing.

"Lukas, what's this thing supposed to be?" Ivor asked, staring at the pillars that surrounded a massive obsidian and coal Ender Dragon with glowing lava and glass eyes. "It appears to be homage to our battle with the Ender Dragon." the blonde replied, walking up to the feet of the dragon and resting his hand on one of the bone block claws. "Despite his anger...despite...everything...it would seem that his days in the Order were very important to Jesse." Lukas's hands clenched and he bowed his head. Sighing, Lukas said "I only wish things could have been different."

Ivor looked around the room and said slowly "Maybe...if you tell me about the battle, it will help me figure out the puzzle of this room?" he suggested carefully. Lukas gave him a weary look, but finally said "We'd spent weeks preparing for our greatest battle ever...But even so, the Ender Dragon was far more powerful than we could have ever imagined. Jesse used his potions to distract it, whilst we all prepared out own traps. Petra used her sword to take out the End Crystals, which gave the beast power. I used my bow to take out several. Axel crafted a cannon, and used it to blow up not only the crystals but half the towers holding them up. And Olivia used her skills in redstone to fire arrows upon the beast, weakening it. As it flew towards the ground, trying to breathe it's deadly flame on us, I managed to leap onto it's back, and steer it towards the final crystal. I rammed it into it, jumping off at the last second and taking considerable damage. The beast blew up, and it was then that we realized that Jesse was nowhere to be seen. We searched the island top to bottom, but finally decided that he must have been thrown into the Void when the dragon swooped to the ground." he shook his head sadly "We thought it best not to add him into our tale. We wanted him remembered as a friend who left us to complete our story, rather than someone who had spent his last moments falling endlessly."

Ivor nodded slowly, looking around the room and realizing for the first time that the pillars had banners on them, each decorated with a different symbol. Walking around the room, he studied them slowly. Pacing back around to the one with the golden sword, Ivor lifted up the banner, and pressed the button that it was hiding. Walking around the room yet again, he pressed the bow next, then the TNT, and finally the redstone. A set of double Iron Doors in the back of the room swung open, only to reveal another set. Tilting his head back to study the dragon statue, Ivor squinted at the eyes and realized that Eyes of Ender had been placed in item frames over the glass panes that hid lava, and above them almost like horns, were buttons. But there was also a lever, pointing downwards.

"I wonder..." Ivor muttered, taking a few steps back. It would be the hardest parkour in the world, but the way the statue had been built definitely looked like it was climbable.

* * *

With many cuts and bruises from failed attempts, Ivor finally pushed the lever upwards on the back of the dragon's head, and felt a massive grin spill over his face as he heard, and then saw, the doors opening, leading into what looked like a small chamber. "Enchanted book here we come!" he said, sliding down the dragon's back. Going down was much easier than going up, as the cut on his left shoulder, from where he'd landed sharply on the edge of a piece of obsidian, could prove.

Waving a hand in a signal for Reuben to follow, Ivor slipped through the doors...and stared.

A half second later, Lukas followed him in, and grinned "There it is!" he said pointing to the book. Then his gaze lifted slightly, and his hand drew back towards his body. "Ivor..." Lukas began, but when he turned to face the young male he was greeted by a stony look, hands curled into trembling fists. "Lukas..." Ivor spoke lowly, in a tone that said he wasn't going to take any nonsense "Why is there a dragon on the other side of that glass?"

* * *

As it turned out, the Ender Dragon had not been a he as most history books said. No...it was a she. And _she_ had dropped an egg when she died. Jesse had apparently taken the egg, and found a way to hatch it. Which was revealed when Jesse had entered the room, after Lukas had gotten all sweaty and spilled the beans. Revealed how he had used the Command Block to blow up the Ender Crystals and kill the dragon. And then when Jesse, who had been uninformed of that detail of the plan had threatened to spill the beans, well...in the words of Jesse himself, Lukas had ordered Petra to slice his throat.

"Lukas..." Harper said slowly. She and the others had arrived in the basement along with the rest of them, in time to hear Lukas and Jesse's confrontation. Endyr, the dragonet, was watching them curiously from the other side of the purple glass, chirruping as she sat in the miniature End Jesse had constructed. "I looked up to you." the black haired female continued "The whole world did."

Lukas closed his eyes and said softly "No one is more ashamed than me."

Petra's brows were furrowed and she said quietly "So...we're liars? All of us?"

"Yeah." Ellegaard replied, glaring daggers into Lukas "I think you are."

"So...this whole thing..." Ivor said, eyes narrow "this Wither you unleashed...it was to teach the Order a lesson?"

Jesse scoffed and replied "To teach the World a lesson. To show the world who the Order of the Stone really is. Liars, Cowards. And now they know."

Lukas gave a resigned sigh "Yes...I suppose they do."

"And how is that any better?" Harper snapped "You reveal their lies at the expense of the world itself?"

Jesse crossed his arms. "Look, my Wither plan obviously failed." he said "I certainly didn't think we'd end up with three of those things out there."

"Which brings us back to why we're here." Ivor interrupted. As much as he wanted to yell at Jesse...and Lukas...and possibly Olivia and Axel, there were much more pressing matters to attend to. "We need to destroy that Command Block, NOW"

"Ivor is right." Lukas said quietly "Destroying that damn block is all that matters now."


	26. And so it Begins

After crafting and enchanting his first diamond weapon, which was a pickaxe since he'd figured it would be best for the job, Ivor had been allowed to pick out some armor from Jesse's hoard. Alright, so it wasn't a hoard, but there were so many armor stands there that it might as well have been. The one he'd picked was a lot like the armor Jesse himself was now wearing, rich midnight blue. But where Jesse's had golden highlights, Ivors had black. Jesse told him it had been made from Obsidian, and could withstand the force of an Enderman hit.

The others had gotten geared up as well; Ellegaard was wearing a dark brown and red armor that Jesse said that had been made from redstone-enfused leather. Even though it was leather, supposedly it was as strong as iron or chainmail. Harper's armor was made from armor that Jesse claimed had been created from gold and diamond, and had a blue-gold sheen to it. They'd also upgraded their weapons. Harper had a quiver on her back with a full stack of arrows inside, and the bow slung over her shoulder was enchanted with Flame and Infinity. Ellegaard had a bow as well, although hers was enchanted with Power III and Infinity, instead of Flame. Petra had the most surprising weapon. Apparently one of the treasures Jesse had stolen was Petra's old sword. Fire Aspect V, Unbreaking V, Sharpness III, Smite IV. A one-hit kill for most mobs. It was the weapon Petra had used to almost-kill Jesse, and every time he saw it, Jesse flinched back slightly. He seemed angry at himself for doing it, but frankly Ivor didn't blame him. He was surprised the potionologist hadn't smelted it into a golden nugget already.

Lukas had taken a simple Iron sword, although it had Sharpness V and Unbreaking IV on it. Jesse himself was armed with about a half-stack worth of various potions. They'd found their horses again, and had split up to take the fastest of the horses. Lukas was on a dappled gray one by himself since no one really wanted to ride with him, Ellegaard and Ivor were on a dark brown one with white socks, Petra and Jesse shore a bright red horse, with Endyr, whom Jesse had insisted they bring, clinging to the potionologists back, and Ivor, Reuben, and Harper were on a silvery white one with a black mane. Ivor was fairly sure Ellegaard had had something to do with the seating arrangements, although he couldn't prove it.

They'd been riding for almost two days. The trip was going a lot faster, since Jesse had thrown Splash Potions of Speed II at the animals, making them go about three times as fast as they had on the way in. Reaching where Lukas's fortress should have been, Ivor stared, eyes wide. The massive building was completely gone, the Grinder was partially exposed, and mobs were streaming out of it and away from the Witherstorm. Endyr's head lifted up and peered over Jesse's shoulder, the dragonet studied the Witherstorms, shuddered, and vanished back underneath the black cloak the older man had put on.

Behind Ivor, Harper made a wordless sound of amazement. Petra tilted her head towards the three monsters which were screeching in the sky and said slowly "Shouldn't the Endermen have dismantled those things by now?" her voice faltered and she added "Or am I just confused?"

"It's not just you." Jesse said, sliding off of his horse. "There's something wrong."

"IVOR!" Ivor's head snapped in the direction of the voice, and grinned as Magnus came barreling out of the woods, tackling him in a massive hug. "Magnus!" Ivor said, pulling back and grinning. "You guys made it!" the bald teen said "Nice freaking armor by the way." "Good to see you too Magnus." Ellegaard said, a small smile dancing across her lips as she spoke.

"Do you still have the amulet?" Ivor really hated to break up the reunion, but he had to know if their only way of luring the Witherstorms into a trap was safe. Magnus grinned at him, and reached into the inventory bag slung around his shoulder, pulling out the amulet. The gold, white, and blue gems were glowing brightly, the green one was about half-dull, and only the red one showed no sign of light. "Safe and sound." Magnus said proudly. "But that's not the problem." he turned, and pointed down towards the base of the mountain, where millions of tall black mobs were just milling around. "The Endermen are. They aren't angry enough. I mean, a few of them are, but not enough. Most of them are just standing around, moving blocks, y'know, just being Endermen."

Lukas scowled, and his hands clenched into fists. Before he could say anything, Magnus continued "They've kept the main Witherstorm busy, but one of the smaller ones started attacking us. Then Axel decided to run off on his own and attack it, by himself."

"He's fighting a Witherstorm?" Jesse gasped, eyes practically bulging "Alone? Who in their right minds-" he cut himself off, shaking his head with a groan as he pressed his face into his palms. "It's Axel. Of course he would do something like that." he grumbled. Magnus nodded "He kept saying something about paying for the mistakes of the past, whatever that means." he shrugged, seemingly not noticing Jesse's half angry half 'this is normal why am I mad' state.

Petra took a step forwards "If a fellow member of the Order of the..." she faltered, blinking those oddly colored eyes, and then turning to Ivor, a sheepish expression on her face. "Order of the Stone." Ivor supplied. Petra nodded, and said "If a fellow member of the Order of the Stone is out there fighting, then I belong there too!"

"Petra no!" Lukas snapped "I've told you, you're not who you think you are!"

"My name is Petra the Warrior!" Petra shouted, unsheathing her blade and holding it to the sky triumphantly for about half a second, before charging down the hill screaming things that Ivor could have gone his entire life without hearing.

"She's going the wrong way isn't she?" Jesse muttered, not bothering to look up from where his face was still buried in his palms. Endyr let out a helpful chirp, and Ivor said "Yup."

* * *

With Jesse and Endyr haven taken off after Petra, Magnus turned to Ivor again. "Hey uh...you...you guys didn't happen to check up on Gabriel and Olivia did you?"

Ellegaard shook her head "We came straight here." she said, and Harper added "They're still in the cave, as far as I'm aware...I..I hope they're alright."

"They will be." Ivor promised "As long as we destroy the Command Block."

"So...what's the plan?" Magnus asked, tilting his head "I mean are we just gonna follow Petra's lead and charge...uh...hopefully not screaming-" Ivor decided to cut him off before he could repeat anything Petra had just screamed, and pulled the enchanted diamond pickaxe out of his inventory "We find a way for me to use this."

Magnus's eyes doubled, all words that had been about to leave his throat thankfully forgotten "That is, without a doubt, the coolest thing I have ever seen." a massive grin split the green-wearing teen's face practically in half, and Ivor couldn't help but smile back as he put the pick away. "I brought you some armor too, you're going to need it." He took out a set of armor that Jesse had told him was made from Creeper hide and could withstand the blast of TNT. Magnus grinned, taking it from him and slipping it on "Thanks!" he chirped "I was feeling a little left out."

* * *

"Does anyone see the Command Block?" Ivor shouted, eyes scanning the largest Witherstorm. Some of its ribs were still exposed, but at first glance he didn't see the Command Block or its altar. "We need to get more Endermen focused on the Witherstorms." Ellegaard shouted back. "How do you make Endermen focus? I can barely make myself focus!" Magnus called.

"We shouldn't be here..." Ivor turned, having only just barely heard the voice, and stared at Lukas, who was trembling fiercely. "None of this is going according to plan..."

"That doesn't matter." Ivor said, gaze firm "What matters is we do everything we can to stop that thing." Lukas blinked at him, and then, slowly, nodded. "Very well..." he said "How may I be of assistance?" Ivor nodded, gave the blonde a half smile, and then replied, raising his voice so the others could hear "We need to get the Endermen to attack the Witherstorm."

Almost as if on cue, a tractor beam swung over the edge of the Haunting, and a few Endermen began to tremble upwards. They shrieked, looking up at the monster in fury, and teleported away. Reappearing a few minutes later on top of the monster and joining the other angry monsters in tearing apart the Witherstorm block by block.

"The tractor beam!" Lukas and Ellegaard said, nearly in sync. Lukas was the one that elaborated though "If you can get the Endermen to follow you into the tractor beam, they will direct their anger away from you and onto the Withers!" Ivor nodded and said "Let's split up. Everyone, do everything you were told not to do to an Enderman. Look them in the eyes, shove them, steal their blocks, douse them with water if you must, we need to get them mad, and then we need them to get sucked into the tractor beam."

* * *

Ivor ducked and dodged the blocks that were flying about. Making his way in front of an Enderman, Ivor took a deep breath, and then tilted his head upwards, until his blue eyes were locked into the glowing purple of the Endermans. The Enderman shook and screeched at him, jaw unhinging and sharp fangs revealed, directed at Ivor for a half-second, until a tractor beam washed over the pair. Ivor ducked away, but the Enderman stood there until it started to lift into the air. Then it screeched again, and teleported.

* * *

"Ivor look, it's working!" Ellegaard's shout caught Ivor's attention as he finished shoving an Enderman into a tractor beam. Ivor turned to look at her, and then where she was pointing. The redstone specialist was correct, a large opening had appeared in the main Witherstorms side, large enough for him to easily get into, if he could get high enough. Magnus seemed to be thinking the same thing and said "We need to find a way to get you up there." Ellegaard's eyes lit up and she corrected the bald teen by saying "Or build you a way up!"

Ivor grinned, and nodded sharply "Everyone, empty your pockets!"

Reaching into his own inventory Ivor rattled off the list "I've got cobble, redstone, a tripwire hook, pistons- when did I get that? An Iron Sword, and a bow but no arrows from the Order's Temple."

Magnus said "I have some leftover fireworks, and some TNT from Boomtown. A minecart...Oh, a ton of wood, cobble, and some stone and iron tools too, had to do some survival mining on the way here."

Ellegaard took out her inventory and said "I've got pistons, a lot of redstone, a repeater, and a slime block."

Harper, who had been working on shooting at Endermen called over her shoulder "I have some wool from Lukas's place, and well...a lot of arrows that I don't really need."

"That's gotta be enough to build something, right?" Ellegaard said, studying the pile. I mean, if we use the TNT on say..." "A minecart" Harper jumped in, rolling away from a wither skull. Ellegaard nodded "Or maybe those pistons..." Magnus, not one to be left out, said "We do have a ton of cobblestone."

"Maybe we could build a ramp?" Magnus suggested. "Or even go up vertically." Ellegaard said, nodding. "Or, find a way to use the redstone." Harper called.

Ivor tilted his head, tuning out the others voices and focusing not on what he had, but what he'd seen them in before. "You guys..." he said, earning near-instant silence "We use the pistons and the redstone to build a flying machine. It'll be just like the one back at the Far Lands, but vertical. Then, when I'm high enough, I use the TNT like a shockwave propeller, remember the builder two years ago at Endercon? He used TNT to ricochet around the ice."

Ellegaard nodded, scooping up her items. "What are we waiting for then?" she said, gaze flicking towards the Storms "Let's hurry up and-" she cut herself off with a sharp intake of air, eyes nearly tripling as she stared behind them for a second, before shouting "LOOK OUT!"

Ivor turned, and saw a tractor beam marching steadily towards them. "Move!" he shouted, knocking Magnus out of the beam's path. "Harper, we need a hand over here!" he shouted, doing his best to scoop up the items before the Witherstorm got them.

"I can do better than that!" Harper said, shooting him a grin, before reaching up and pulling down the goggles she seemed to always wear. With them seated neatly over her eyes, Harper let out a battle cry, thankfully with much less profanity than Petra's, and charged forwards "Here Wither, wither!" she shouted "Come and get me!" with that said, she reached into her inventory and pulled out a few fireworks, setting them off so that they shot directly at the heads of the monsters.

"Good thinking Harper." Ivor called "Now come on you guys, lets hurry up and build this thing."

* * *

"Hurry, climb on!" Ellegaard said, giving the black haired teen a boost. Grabbing hold of his hand, Ellegaard locked eyes with Ivor and added "And Ivor...good luck. I know you can do this."

Ivor smiled "Thank Ellie. It means a lot to me."

Magnus grinned "Now go demolish that Command Block!" Ivor nodded at him, and flicked the switch that would send him flying. Right as the machine rumbled to life, Reuben let out a bleat, and charged up the build, clambering into Ivor's lap. By the time that Ivor realized what was happening it was too late, the TNT was already starting to flash white. "Reuben no!" he shouted "This is no place for a-" and then the TNT exploded and Ivor and Reuben went flying.


	27. Take Back the Night

Ivor shrieked as he and Reuben were thrown into the hole and rolled down the inside of the Witherstorm before they finally managed to come to a stop. Coughing as the air inside the beast filled his lungs, Ivor's eyes squinted open and he peered around. Being inside of this...this thing, was much worse than scrambling around its ruins. Faces with blank expressions and dull pinkish white eyes stared out of the black goop that seemed to fill everything, and blocks jutted out at random areas like spikes...or bones.

Ivor groaned as he got to his feet, feeling a sharp pain in his left leg. It might have healed, but having been broken not all that long ago and then getting thrown sharply into a giant monster, it was acting up. A small bleat rang in his ears, and then a wet tongue was lapping at his hands. "Hey Reuben." Ivor said with a small smile. Then he frowned, remembering what had just happened and said in a stern tone "Reuben, you shouldn't have done that." Reuben bleated sadly, and pulled away, ears and tail dropping. Ivor sighed, and looked around again "But..." he added slowly, earning a hopeful look from the lamb "On the other hand...I'm glad you're here. I don't really want to be alone up here. Just...stay close." Reuben nodded, and proceeded to instantly wander over to a green glowing mushroom and sniff at it.

* * *

As Ivor and Reuben wandered through the absolutely disgusting terrain, the ground began to rumble. Ivor frowned, and came to a halt, looking around for something to grab onto. Before he could take hold of anything however, the Witherstorm rumbled again, and then the entire inside flipped to the right. What was once the floor became the wall, and Ivor and Reuben fell down, down, down, until they smacked once again onto hard black ground.

"Owwwwww" Ivor groaned, standing back up. Rubbing the back of his head, Ivor peered around and realized just how far he'd fallen. Briefly, in the back of his mind, he wondered what it must look like to the others outside, or if the Witherstorm could rotate it's innards without affecting its outward appearance. Looking around, Ivor saw the face a half second before Reuben did. A very familiar face, from only a few weeks before...the face, of a butcher. Reuben let out a terrified bleat, and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Reuben!" Ivor shouted, lunging after the lamb, and collapsing to the floor in quite the spectacular fashion. Pushing his palms against the floor, and doing his best not to think about just what it was he was touching, Ivor got back to his feet once again and took off. Rounding a corner as the beast began to shake quite violently Ivor shouted "Wait up!" no sense in stealth since the Wither seemed to already know he was there.

As he skidded to a stop, trying to find his lamb, the Witherstorm decided to take another 90 degree turn and he went tumbling sideways. Out of the corner of his eye, Ivor was fairly sure he could see Reuben bleating and kicking his legs as the lamb fell

* * *

There was a ringing in his ears when Ivor managed to open his eyes. A ringing in his ears and a wet tongue on his face. Groaning, Ivor raised a arm and coughed rather violently. When he could see straight again, he saw that the armor along his arm was now flecked red with blood. Licking his lips, he could still taste the bitter coppery liquid. Smiling at Reuben, who was looking rather concerned, Ivor slurred "'m a'ight'" Letting his eyes adjust to the brighter section they were now in, Ivor realized with surprise that the Command Block altar from earlier was right in front of him. Struggling to his feet and leaning heavily on the wall since his stupid leg refused to let him put weight on it, Ivor hobbled towards it, Reuben walking alongside him and pressing his black and white fur into Ivor, helping him keep balance.

"We mee' a'ain Comman' B'ock" Ivor muttered, taking a moment to spit out some blood that had pooled in his mouth. Reaching into his inventory with one arm against the wall to keep his balance, the raven haired teen drew out his pickaxe. "The time 'as come to des'roy you."

Hopping, literally with one foot raised, up the stairs, Ivor balanced carefully and used both hands to heft the glowing pickaxe above his head. Swinging down harshly, Ivor was quite satisfied to see cracks appear along the block's surface. He was not satisfied with the shriek that the Witherstorm gave out, so loud he could hear it even from the inside. Ivor fell backwards, catching himself with his palms and then wishing he hadn't. For now, in this position, he could see the altar splitting apart into six tentacles. "Reuben...I think I made it mad." Ivor muttered.

From the walls of the beast, more tentacles began to emerge, these ones lunging for Ivor. Rolling out of the way since he didn't trust his legs, Ivor took temporary shelter underneath the steps of the altar. Reuben shivered next to him, and Ivor said quietly "No matter what happens Reuben, we have to destroy that Command Block. Do you understand?" Reuben gave him a 'are you seriously doubting my intelligence?' look, and nodded sharply, letting out a determined bleat.

* * *

Ivor had managed to get in another hit by crawling above the altar while the tentacles were distracted with looking for him. This had proceeded to cause the Witherstorm to spout a freaking head inside of itself, and start searching for him with a tractor beam. Ivor had had no choice but to run, and so he'd done a makeshift cast with a cape that had fallen down to them when the Witherstorm rotated.

"Wait a minute..." Ivor muttered, watching the tractor beam scan the withered people it held hostage. "I know exactly how to get up there." Whirling to face Reuben, Ivor shouted "Reuben, watch my back. If anything happens, I'm counting on you." With those words hanging in the air, Ivor took off for the main part of the 'room' and hollered "Hey you! Bet you can't catch me." and then he did quite possibly the most idiotic thing he'd ever done in his life. Held out his arms and stood still, letting the pink glow wash over him. He shuddered as he began to lift into the air, but he kept his jaws clamped shut, eyes focused on his target. When he had been lifted high enough, Ivor grabbed onto the nearest tentacle, and used it to flip upwards into the air, and land on top of the giant black head. The head roared, and he could faintly hear more roars on the outside of the body.

Preparing to jump, Ivor readied his pick. Before he could take the leap however, a black mass slammed into him, sending him flying in one direction...and his weapon in the other. Groaning, Ivor realized he was now hanging upside down in the tentacles grasp. "Reuben!" Ivor shouted, using one of his hands to point at the weapon "remember how we used to play fetch? I need your help buddy."

Reuben ran towards the pick, sniffed it, wagged his tail, and then picked it up with his mouth. "Come on Reuben!" Ivor called, a grin spreading across his face "I believe in you." While the lamb started making his way up the once floor now wall, Ivor began to swing in the tentacle, wincing every time he drew near to the head. When he'd gotten enough momentum, Ivor said "Jump Reuben, I'll catch you!"

Wriggling free from the tentacle, Ivor went flying into the air just as Reuben leaped off of his own tentacle. Skidding back onto one of the waving tentacles, lamb and weapon in hands,Ivor grinned and then turned towards the Command Block "Time to put an end to this, once and for-" before he could finish, the Witherstorm head lunged out, snapping Reuben's leg in its massive jaws. Yanking back, Reuben let out a terrified bleat as he was forcibly removed from his human. The Witherstorm's jaws opened, and Reuben fell.

And Ivor saw red.

* * *

When Ivor came back to consciousness, he was wet. Soaking wet. Taking a shuddering breath, Ivor could barely hear Magnus shouting "HE'S ALIVE!" Coughing and spluttering, Ivor realized he was floating on the edge of a small pond. A pond that had just saved his life. All around him were the burning remains of the Witherstorm, and people slowly emerging from the wreckage. Stumbling onto land, Ivor was reminded of his once again broken leg. But that didn't matter.

His friends were racing towards him but that didn't matter either. Nothing mattered, except for finding Reuben. When they got close enough Ivor screamed, as tears fell from his eyes "Find Reuben!" before they could react, a small cry landed in Ivor's ears and he whirled. Stumbling forwards, he limped to the other side of a black tentacle. There, floated in the shadows, left hind leg completely missing as blood flowed from the wound, staining the water red, was a small black and white furred lamb.

"Reuben..." Ivor breathed out. Making his way down the small hill and towards the pond, Reuben's ear, the one above water, flicked towards him ever so slightly, and one of his eyes, the one not swollen shut, flickered up to face Ivor. A small smile donned the lamb's muzzle, and his tail gave a weak wag as Ivor swam over to him, cradling him gently. With a shuddering breath, Ivor held Reuben as tightly as he dared, while still letting the lamb float "You're a hero Reuben." he whispered, just softly enough for the lamb to hear. "You helped save the world." Reuben's tail wagged again, and he opened his mouth, as if to bleat, but no sounds came out. "Come on Reuben, say something." Ivor pleaded, the tears racing down his cheeks were nonstop, and his vision was starting to blur, but he didn't notice. Closing his eyes, Ivor placed his head next to Reuben's, and in a low voice said "It's alright boy, I've got you. I'm here for you." Reuben smiled, a soft brushing of fur against Ivor's neck, and let out one final bleat.

And then, with a sound like smoke puffing above a fire...

Reuben was gone, and in his place, a single piece of Raw Mutton.

* * *

A week had passed. Everyone was back to normal, and most folks had returned to their homes. Gabriel and Ellegaard had found their way back from the cave, Gabe standing tall and no longer plagued by Wither Sickness. Petra's eyes glowed a healthy blue, and her memories had all been restored. Ivor, Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus, Axel, Olivia, Lukas, and Petra were currently standing on a stage, in front of a quartz monument with a banner of Reuben on it. They were towards the back, the time for their 'speech' not yet ready. Harper was somewhere in the crowd, reuniting with Hadrien, Mevia, and Otto, and Jesse...Ivor wasn't sure where the potionologist and his dragonet were.

"People used to look at me like that once." Petra said softly. Her red hair was flowing down her back and shoulders, and her helmet, a golden crown-like piece, glowed in the sunlight. "Ivor...having my memory restored has been both a blessing and a curse." she said, one hand clenching into a fist. Ivor arched a brow, but was silent. Petra continued, voice lowering "Perhaps...perhaps I should tell them the truth. About the Order. All those lies we told them...they deserve to know." she glanced at the crowd again "Perhaps I should come clean."

Ivor crossed his arms and nodded "I think you're right." he replied, voice low as well. "They deserve to know the truth."

Petra winced, as though she'd been hoping for a different answer, but she gave him a single nod, and stepped forwards. People hushed quickly when they saw her, and Petra nodded at them, a warm smile showing. "We all owe a great debt to Ivor and his friends." Petra said, before she lowered her head and said "But I owe a debt to you people as well." The crowd murmured, what on earth could she mean?

Petra took a shuddering breath, and then said "Which is why, I want to tell you something. About the Order."

As Petra spoke, telling how they'd used the Command Block, Ivor turned towards the crowd, looking for two faces that wouldn't be shocked. Spotting them, Ivor caught their eyes and nodded them forwards. Harper and Jesse slowly began to pull from the crowd and walk up to him. When they were close enough he could talk without disturbing Petra Ivor said "You both helped out, you should be up here too." Harper smiled and whispered her thanks. Jesse rolled his eyes, but made no move to leave.

"So it is time for the world to celebrate new heroes." Petra concluded "Real heroes." with that she turned, squared her shoulders as no sound came from the stunned audience, and walked to Ivor "They're all yours" she said, before leaving the stage. Axel, Olivia, and Lukas followed her example, and vanished into the shadows.

Taking a deep breath as he walked to where Petra had been standing a few minutes ago, Ivor said "I know you all think I'm up here because I saved the world or something. But...the truth is I didn't do it alone." Turning and waving his hands towards the others, Ivor was soon joined by Gabriel, Magnus, Ellegaard, Harper, and even Jesse. "Far from it. I had my friends, Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus, Harper...They stood by my side, right from the start." he rubbed the back of his head and added "Well, they made fun of me too. But when I deserved it." he shrugged "That's just how they are."

"It's crazy to think me and my friends started off in a treehouse." Ivor continued, "And now we've been to some of the weirdest places in the world!" He grinned and added "I mean come on, we went to the Far Lands!" slowly, the crowd began to clap and cheer as Ivor added "There were these gigantic walls, a crazy maze, a model of the Ender Dragon..." he shook his head "You just had to be there."

"But do you know what really mattered?" Ivor asked as the crowd began to quiet. Without waiting for an answer he turned, and pointed to the monument. "My hero, Reuben the sheep." there was a bit of confusion, but Ivor ignored that, and focused on not letting the tears that were gathering up spill. "He may have seemed like just a lamb to some people. But he was so much more. At the end of the day...he saved us all."

He turned back to the crowd and said "So let's hear it for Reuben."

The crowd positively roared. Whoops and hollers echoed through the streets of Beacontown, and Ivor smiled softly. If Reuben could have heard this...

"Ivor." Petra's voice broke him out of his thoughts. He turned, and saw Petra holding three dark purple Nether Stars. "These are what dropped when the Witherstorm's fell. Would you care to do the honors?" Ivor nodded, taking them. He pocketed two, and lifting the other one high, he walked around to the back of the stage and climbed the steps that led to the top of Reuben's memorial. Placing the Nether Star inside of it, Ivor stepped back right as the beacon whirled to life, a beautiful white light racing upwards to the horizon. Then a piston whirred, and black glass was shoved in front of it, before pulling it back, making the light alternate between white and black. The colors of Reuben.

"My friends!" Petra's voice boomed as Ivor climbed back down. She held the amulet in her hands, but the golden gem had been replaced by a diamond colored one. "I am now pleased to introduce you to...The New, Order of the Stone!" with those words said she walked over to Ivor and placed the amulet in his hands. As he held it, all five gems sparked to life, glowing proudly.


	28. Another Story Begins

Night cast its darkness over the world. A jungle, with thick trees blocking the weak moonlight, buzzed with life, from ocelots teaching their cubs how to fish, to parrots mimicking the monsters that lurked in the shadows. Long vines trailed from high-up leaves,and bats flew around cave openings, squeaking to one another.

Above the clouds the world was still. Stars twinkled and the moon glowed brightly. A perfectly peaceful night.

Or at least it would be, if it weren't for the group of people running away from the massive horde of mobs.

Running past a small group of Ocelots, Ivor skidded underneath a small cobblestone structure, sliding into view of a large building that stuck out like snow on the beach. The glow from the building split the darkness of the jungle, and a small smile danced across Ivor's lips. Then he saw the mobs shuffling along just ahead and quickly ducked behind a tree, holding his breath to try and prevent them from noticing him. Face setting with determination, Ivor drew his weapon, a glinting diamond sword enchanted with Looting III and Sharpness II. Sliding into a fighting stance, Ivor whirled around to the other side of the tree and lunged at the mobs.

Raising his sword, Ivor swung at a group of three zombies, knocking them away and watching them explode with grim satisfaction. Another group lurched towards him, and were quickly met with the same fate. Hacking his way towards the temple and doing his best to avoid the floating Rotten Flesh drops. A grin danced along his face, and then the sound of skeletons rang in his ears. Turning, he came face to face with two bows, and yelped, stumbling backwards.

A low voice gave a shout, and then in a flash of blue and silver Gabriel came tumbling out of the trees, diamond sword slicing neatly through the skeleton's bodies.

Ivor grinned, nodding his thanks. Gabriel gave him a sharp nod back, and then ran to keep fighting.

"Hey Ivor, check this out!" Ivor turned, and saw Magnus with a Baby Zombie under each arm. "And three, two one, POP!" as he said 'pop' he squeezed his arms towards his sides, and with matching groans both zombies poofed into dust. "Cool right?" Ivor rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the small smile that spread over his lips.

"You guys are working way to hard." Ivor turned towards the sound of Ellegaards voice, and tilted his head at the sight of the...thing she had built. It looked to be a set of dispensers, with fences connecting them. Her hands were practically glowing red with the Redstone dust that was nearly covering the whole build "And that thing didn't take effort?" Ivor asked, arching a brow as she rammed her elbow into a button and roughly fifty arrows came flying out over the battle-field, most smacking into monsters, one ramming it's way into the shoulder of a very startled Magnus.

Ellegaard winced as he shouted and called "Sorry! No aim in these things."

* * *

Within a few minutes, the battle was over. Monster drops scattered the ground, bows, bones, rotten flesh and spider eyes absolutely everywhere. But that wasn't their focus. All eyes were on the temple, which they were now directly in front of. It was gorgeous. "That is one impressive temple." Ivor said, tilting his head towards the carved stone bricks, mossy cobblestone, and obsidian building. Gabriel nodded and said "Points to Jesse I suppose. This was a good tip."

Ivor nodded and then took a step forwards, foot landing on the first step "Order of the Stone" he said, eyes twinkling "Time to get some treasure!"

"TREASURE!" the others shouted, arms shooting into the air.

They ran into the temple, and instantly fanned out. Ivor slowed to a stop, and scanned the surprisingly small room. On every wall except for the one with the door, there was lava flowing down to the floor behind glass. Pistons were extended, blocking the flow from going into the empty channels on either side of the main lava stream. There were also levers, which seemed to be connected to the pistons.

"So much for treasure." Gabriel muttered, crossing his arms with a small frown. Ivor looked over his shoulder and grinned "Come on, you know how these things work. The treasure is NEVER out in the open."

* * *

It took several tries to get the lava flow puzzle to work. It was absolutely worth it as the entire temple rumbled, and then the entire middle of the floor pulled away and revealed a winding staircase.

"You know, I actually would have been disappointed if the floor didn't open up into a dark creepy passageway." Magnus said as he hopped down onto the stairs closest to him. "This kind of reminds me of the Order's Temple." Gabriel said, pulling a torch out of his inventory to help light the sections that were farthest away from the three lava streams. A small laugh rumbled from his throat as he added "We were such scared noobs back then."

"Hey I wasn't scared!" Magnus protested from several sets down.

Ellegaard arched a brow "Oh? Then who was it shouting 'help, help, the dispensers are out to get me'?"

Ivor decided to intervene before Magnus could start shouting, and he said "That feels like it was...I don't know...a million years ago. We've packed a lot in since then."

"And to think..." Ellegaard said wonderingly "That was just the beginning."

"Yeah!" Magnus agreed "That was before we'd fought Witherstorms, hung out with Endermen, reunited the Order...so crazy."

* * *

They'd finally reached the bottom of the stairs, and found themselves facing a large empty cave. Empty...except for the four chests sitting neatly in the center. Ivor, Magnus, Ellegaard, and Gabriel all walked up to a chest and pushed them open. "Let's see what we've got." Ivor muttered. Using one hand to hold up the chest, he used the other to rummage about in the brown box.

"Hey it's a cake!" Ellegaard said, pulling out the thick round food. "Aw man, you got a cake?" Magnus whined, lifting his head up and all but drooling. "It's just...I really love cake, and-" Ellegaard rolled her eyes, and tossed the item across the small space. "Oh man, oh man oh man oh man!" Magnus said, lunging for it and putting it neatly in his inventory "Thank you!"

Ivor managed to see what Gabriel was pocketing and nodded "Pumpkin, not bad." Gabriel nodded back "Should come in handy if we run into any Endermen."

Focusing on his own chest, Ivor thought at first it was empty. Then his hands rubbed against two very small items. Two things small enough he could fit them both into the same hand. Pulling them out, Ivor peered at a flint and steel. Both glowing a bright sky blue color.

"What did you find?" Ellegaard asked. She was on the opposite side of Ivor, which meant all she could see was probably the blue glow that cast over Ivor's face. Ivor shifted to his feet, and held out the flint and steel. "Whoa..." Magnus breathed "That's super cool."

"What kind of enchantment is this?" Ivor asked, gaze flicking to Ellegaard. She shook her head "I have no clue. I've seen some people but Unbreaking on a Flint and Steel, but that's definitely not Unbreaking. Or if it is, then it's really old or really weak. Look, you can see cracks forming on it." her hand skimmed over the glowing items, tracing phantom lines in the flint and steel.

"You could fire it and find out." Gabriel suggested. Ellegaard stepped back, and Ivor moved away from the staircase. Striking the flint and steel against each other, aiming at some stone so it would die out quickly, Ivor jerked back as a three block high column of blue fire blasted in front of him, burning for several seconds before dying out.

Before they could fully process the sheer amazingness of what had just happened, a low groan rang through the cave. Drawing his sword and dropping the flint and steel into his inventory, Ivor said "Order of the Stone, looks like some monsters have a death wish."

"So what's the plan?" Magnus asked, bringing his fists up in front of him. It would have been more terrifying, if he didn't have frosting all over his fingers. "If you ask me, this seems like the perfect time for a secret handshake."

"Yeah, so let's use the Redstone Rap." Ellegaard said, aiming an arrow at a spider that was crawling up the wall. "I believe you mean the Warrior Whip." Gabriel said, sword slicing through the air.

"Oh come on." Magnus said, rolling his eyes "It was my idea, so let's do the Griefer Grab!"

"Warrior Whip." Ivor decided, turning towards Gabriel and sheathing his sword. Gabriel did the same, and they took hold of each other's hands. Spinning around, Gabriel kicked off of one of the chests, grabbed his sword, and went flying at the monsters, slicing at them neatly and swiftly while the others started up the stairs. A few seconds later, Gabriel joined them.

They were about halfway up the stairs when a skeleton's arrow rammed into a block, shot it out of place, and let Lava spill onto the stairs, burning through the wooden staircase as easily as a diamond sword through a zombie. "We need to get out of here!" Ivor shouted "Use the vines" Gabriel called back, taking a handful of the thick green ivy that crawled up the walls. Following the warrior's lead, Ivor, Ellegaard, and Magnus began to scale the wall. Dodging arrows and dancing away from lava was a lot harder when going pure vertical, but they somehow managed.

"Cave spiders." Gabriel groaned, looking down when the sound of spider hissing grew louder. "Why did it have to be Cave Spiders?" ever since the whole 'amnesia' thing, Gabriel had been avoiding any mobs that gave you...undesired effects. Witches for example. And, of course, Cave Spiders. "Faster!" Ivor shouted, skidding downwards slightly to hack away at the eight legged monsters.

"Ivor hurry!" Magnus shouted as he hauled himself out "This thing's closing!"

Leaving the spiders be, Ivor climbed faster, and just barely managed to grab hold of Magnus and Ellegaard's hands to pull himself out before the final pistons went off and the floor sealed shut.


	29. Confrontation...Also Lava

"I tell you guys, that never gets old!" Magnus said, a massive grin splitting his face in two.

As they made it to the bottom of the stairs, Ivor sheathed his sword and pulled out the Flint and Steel again, studying it with narrow eyes. As the others spoke behind him, Ivor wondered briefly if Jesse knew anything about the enchanted item. He was the one to convince them to go here after all. "You gotta try that thing again!" Magnus suddenly chirped directly behind Ivor, green eyes lingering on the glowing flint and steel.

"I'm pretty curious about that thing too." Ellegaard said, making her way a bit closer. "I'm dying to know how it works."

Ivor grinned and said "Alright then. What should I burn?"

Magnus let out a _very manly_ squeal and started hopping up and down. "That grass! No, that rock, no that stump!" Ivor rolled his eyes, and then walked over to the stump Magnus had pointed to and readied the the flint and steel. One clack later, a three block tall of blue flames shot upwards, licking the sky before dying out completely. They were so distracted by the flames, that they didn't notice the glinting sword in the shadows until it's owner spoke.

"Well well well." Ivor's gaze shot upwards, and locked onto the shadowy form of a purple shirted and silver haired male. "Where'd you get the new toy?" the other added, straightening from where they'd been leaning on a dark oak tree, and twirling his sword in a spookily casual manner. He had a smirk, and a strange light in his gaze. "That looks a little...sophisticated for you Ivor." Hadrien said, sheathing his sword and crossing his arms. In an unspoken order, two more shapes emerged from the shadows. Mevia, who's smirk was rivaling Hadrien's, and Otto who looked somewhat uncomfortable and a bit confused.

"Order of the Losers" Mevia purred, nudging Otto's arm. Otto nodded and repeated "Yeah, Losers" although his heart didn't seem to be in it.

"Ugh" Ellegaard muttered from behind Ivor "Who let you guys out of your cave?"

"Joke's on you." Mevia said, tossing her blue hair "We don't live in a cave."

Hadrien turned towards her and snarled. _Literally Snarled_ at one of his only friends...well, one of the only people willing to be seen with him in public anyways. "Shut up!"

"So." Ivor said, earning Hadrien's attention "What grief are you here to cause use now?"

"Look. Who's. Talking." Hadrien hissed. Ivor realized there was a strange...fire in Hadrien's eyes. There was something new about this encounter, something...dangerous.

"So, what are you Architects doing here anyways?" Ellegaard asked, tilting her head. Hadrien turned towards Ellegaard, and Ivor felt a rush of fury boil up inside of him. How _dare_ Hadrien look at one of Ivor's friends like that. "The Architects were Harper's gang." Hadrien said, ignoring the way Ivor's fists were clenching. "We ditched that name just like we ditched her."

"We've rebranded" Mevia purred, whirling around to show off the symbol on the back of her shirt. A white item that Ivor had never seen before. But he had seen a purple version of it. "We're the Nether Stars now." Otto nodded, grinning widely as he added "Stars of the Nether~"

"Shut up Otto!" Hadrien hissed, voice rising an octave. Now Ivor was really worried. Hadrien had never acted like this before. Something was wrong.

"Sorry Boss." Otto said, flinching backwards slightly. "Don't do it again." Hadrien hissed back.

Deciding to intervene somehow, Ivor did so in the way he thought most appropriate. By insulting them "Wow, that's too bad. I thought Architects was _way_ cooler of a name." It worked. Hadrien whirled around, eyes practically boiling as he tried to kill Ivor merely by looking at him.

"That's what I said!" Otto jumped in. Hadrien's eye twitched, and he only turned his head enough to snap "Shut. up. you idiot."

Taking a deep breath, Hadrien composed himself and focused back on Ivor. "So, where's Harper?" he asked, scanning the small group. "The minute the Order decided you were cool-" "For whatever reason." Mevia interrupted, tossing her hair again. Hadrien's eye twitched but he didn't say anything. Instead he just continued on as if Mevia had never spoken "She wouldn't stop sniffing around you like some sort of tamed wolf."

"Take that back." Gabriel growled, one hand moving towards his inventory bag to grasp the handle of his sword. Hadrien completely ignored the death glare Gabriel was giving him, and smiled, the shadows making him look somewhat insane as he said "Hmmmmm...nah."

"Harper is ten times the warrior you are!" Gabriel snarled, pulling out his sword. "Orrrrr" Mevia said, crossing her arms "She's a whimpy dork."

"Harper is a hero." Ivor said. "Which is more than I can say for any of you."

* * *

The two 'teams' were currently sizing each other up. Hadrien and Ivor had tossed insults at each other for a while, until Hadrien had gone a step to far, claiming that if he wanted his own stuff then he would have to just take it from others starting with Ivor. Magnus hadn't taken that well, and had charged the Nether Stars. Gabriel and Ellegaard had pulled him back when Mevia and Otto pulled out their weapons. Mevia wielded dual diamond pickaxes which showed an enchantment glow, and Otto had an enchanted diamond axe. Hadrien had his diamond sword back in hand, enchantment casting an eerie glow over his face. "Some hero you are Ivor." he sneered, voice low enough that only he and Ivor, who were practically face to face, could hear.

Ivor stayed silent for a few minutes, and then he took a small step back, lowering his sword. "Let's go home guys. These...Nether Stars aren't worth it."

As the others sheathed their weapons, starting to walk away, Ivor waited, making sure they all got going ahead of him first. Hadrien, Mevia, and Otto watched them, silently, honestly rather insanely. "What hope do we have when heroes like you are throwing their weight around?" Hadrien hissed, once again in a tone that only he and Ivor could hear. "It's not always going to be this way though." Finally, he sheathed his sword. Mevia and Otto followed his example, and Hadrien turned, brushing past them to march in the opposite direction. "Come on you guys, let's get out of here."

* * *

As they made their way back towards Beacontown, the Order of the Stone spent some time discussing Hadrien.

"Us being the new Order of the Stone is really getting to that guy." Ivor said, after spending most of the trip in silence. "He's gone crazy."

"We should be careful." Gabriel said, nodding at Ivors words. "He seems different...scarier somehow."

"And all because he wanted that Flint and Steel." Magnus said, nodding towards Ivor's bag where he'd stashed the enchanted item. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Jesse's the one that told us about the temple." Ellegaard said when Ivor was silent. "Maybe he knows more about the enchantment on it."

Ivor shrugged "Well then I guess we're headed to Jesse's. Didn't he say he was building a house before we left?"

* * *

A terrified scream shattered the sounds of people cheering at the heroes return.

Ivor's head whipped around to find the source, hand twitching toward his sword. Behind him, Gabriel muttered "That wasn't a happy to see us scream."

And then the crowd parted, and all Ivor could do was stare. A giant skull made from stone bricks, lapis blocks, and nether brick, was currently spewing lava from the mouth, in front of which an angry crowd shouted terrifyingly detailed death threats up at a very familiar figure in a dark blue robe who was shouting back at them, and waving some sort of potion bottle around in his hands.

"Wow...that's...new." Ellegaard said slowly. "It somehow manages to evoke skulls...and tentacles."

"While still doing the whole 'barfing lava thing." Gabriel put in.

"I dunno." Magnus said, a grin spreading across its face "I think it's pretty cool."

Ivor was too busy staring at the form leaning out of one of the eye-holes to reply. Although personally he thought it was pretty cool as well.

"NOT MY FAULT!" The figure bellowed.

"LOOK OUT!" someone else shouted, followed by a rather high pitched "HELP!"

The group exchanged glances, before approaching the crowd.

"Oh please, stop your whining." The figure in the tower, now confirmed to indeed be Jesse, shouted down at the crowd "What are your pathetic injuries in comparison to this majestic tower?"

"Jesse?" Ellegaard asked, rather startled. Gabriel groaned, and shook his head "Of course." he muttered.

Apparently seeing them, Jesse grinned at Ivor, which given the current situation looked rather demonic. "Ah, Ivor, you're back." Swinging out of the hole, which was just sooo many shades of wrong, he climbed down some of the vines, brushed off his robe once he was back on the path, and added "Don't listen to anything these fools say."

"It's a fire hazard!" shouted a woman that Ivor somewhat recognized. It took him a moment, but then he realized it was the slime booth lady from Endercon.

And of course while he was realizing this, Jesse was insulting her. "And your face is an ugly hazard!" he snapped, holding up the potion bottle, the potion inside a rather sickly shade of pale blue, and waving it towards her.

"I think it's pretty cool." Ivor said with a shrug. Jesse blinked, froze mid-swing, and then turned back to Ivor, grinning slightly "Why thank you Ivor, it's nice to see someone around here with an appreciation for vision."

"Ivor, seriously!" Gabriel said "You're letting him keep it?"

"Ivor..." Jesse said, in the tone a father uses to tell his son how a fork works. "All I want is what every man here wants. A simple place to call my own..." he paused, and Ivor arched a brow. Rolling his eyes as Jesse finished with "...that has loads of lava pouring off of it."

"Jesse..." Gabriel said slowly, trying to match the older man's tone. "I know you mean well, but your house wants to kill people."

"Exactly!" snapped the woman whom Jesse had insulted.

Ivor tilted his head "What if you built a pit for the lava to fall into, and then put some nether brick fences around it to keep people out. Those are fire-proof right?" Jesse tilted his head, and then nodded slowly "They are, that's why I used them for the support. Very well. I can do that. I shall require some assistance however." Magnus and Ellegaard raised their hands.

Well...Ellegaard raised her hand and used her other one to lift Magnus's into the air. "Come on Magnus, let's go and find some iron for shovels. See you later Ivor."

As the two walked away with the dispersing crowd, Jesse glanced at Ivor curiously. "I haven't seen you around for a while, is something up?"

Ivor frowned "Kind of? We found something in that temple you sent us to. I wanted to-" "You did?" Jesse asked, eyes widening almost comically. He raised a hand and quickly shushed Ivor. Laughing loudly, he wrapped his arm around Ivor's neck and said "Yes, yes, it is good to see you again. Lets do lunch! I'll bring the carrots!" in a lower tone he hissed "There's no telling whose listening. Meet me in the Treasure Room, ten minutes. And bring the...thing you found."

With that the potionologist freed Ivor, and walked away, whistling to himself as he pocketed the potion he'd for some reason been holding through the whole ordeal.


	30. Into the Unknown

It felt great to be back home. Instead of rushing to the treasure room to meet Jesse right away, Ivor had decided to head to his room for a moment to empty out his inventory, and encouraged Gabriel to do the same.

Pulling off his armor, Ivor stretched, and then flopped backwards onto his bed. Letting out a content sigh as the dark blue blankets welcomed him, Ivor wondered how long he could get away with just lying there. Finally though, Ivor sat up, and pulled his inventory bag off of his hip. Sifting through it, he started putting the Jungle Saplings he'd collected in one chest, the Rotten Flesh, Bones, and String he'd gotten from the mobs in another. Digging in his inventory and bypassing the weapons and armor, Ivor's fingers landed on two pieces of one item. Slowly, Ivor pulled them out and held them both in one hand, face lit up by the pale blue glow they cast.

Sliding off of his bed, Ivor put the Flint and Steel away and pulled out his armor. Taking a moment to rinse them in the small infinite water pool he had in his room, Ivor put his armor back on and pushed open the dark oak door.

Time to meet with Jesse.

* * *

The treasure room had filled up rather quickly in the four months since it had been built. Enchanted Golden Apples, Wither Skulls, Magma Cream, and so much more.

"This place is really shaping up." Gabriel said. The dark skinned man was walking to the left and slightly behind Ivor. Ivor turned his head ever so slightly, and nodded. As Ivor turned back to facing forwards, a flicker of movement on the stage towards the back of the room caught his attention. A young woman with dark hair and brown clothing was facing the quartz monument centered on the back wall. There was a banner with a black and white face staring out across the room, and above it, an item frame holding a single piece of mutton. Below the banner was a strange black and white wool block.

"Harper!" Gabriel said, grinning as he walked towards the silver eyed female. "I don't believe it!"

Harper turned, and smiled "Oh, hey! You guys have got some pretty cool stuff here." she looked around again, gray eyes lingering on the Golden Apples. "Crazy stuff."

Gabriel smiled and nodded "Yeah, no doubt there."

As Harper got close enough, Ivor reached out and hugged the female. "It's great to see you." he said as he pulled away.

"It's been a while " Harper said, blushing slightly. "I really missed you guys."

"We missed you as well." Gabriel replied, resting a hand on Harper's shoulder.

* * *

"How are you doing?" Harper asked quietly. They were waiting on Jesse, and Ivor had found himself staring at Reuben's monument.

Ivor lowered his eyes, and stayed quiet for a moment, tears threatening the corners of his eyes. "I really miss him." he said finally, voice trembling. "Every morning I wake up, and just for a minute, I can pretend that he's just in another room, or out sniffing for wheat." he took a shuddering breath "And then every morning I get to remember that he's gone all over again."

"I'm so sorry." Harper said softly, wrapping one arm around Ivor to embrace him in a side hug.

The two sat in silence for a few moments, before Harper finally sighed and said "I promise I didn't come here to bug everyone out. I actually came back because I need to tell you something. About this weird run in I had...with Hadrien."

The name of the white haired male broke Ivor out of his thoughts, and he got back to his feet, Harper quickly following.

"I hate that guy." Gabriel growled, fingers clenching around the hilt of his sword.

"Something...or someone really got to him." Harper said, brushing off her robe.

"We saw him too." Ivor explained "In the jungle we were at before we came back. The Order of the Stone and the Nether Stars are just as friendly as ever."

"That's an understatement." Gabriel muttered.

"He's just been so jealous of you and the rest of the Order ever since you saved the world from the Witherstorm." Harper said.

Ivor frowned a bit. Harper had been there too, why wasn't she giving herself any credit? Had Hadrien threatened her?

"He's convinced that he's supposed to be the hero." Harper concluded, shaking her head. "Ever since he took over the Archite- the...Nether Stars it seems like he's gotten meaner somehow. He's pushing Mevia and Otto around. Well...more than usual anyways."

"Why would he be jealous?" Ivor muttered, brow furrowing.

Harper let out an exasperated sigh "He's convinced you're a bully. Looting and keeping all the best stuff for yourself."

"Of course he is." Gabriel grumbled, walking away and muttering to himself.

"So what did you find that got Hadrien so excited anyways?" Harper asked, looking quite like she would like a change of subject.

Ivor reached into his inventory, and pulled out the Flint and Steel "Check it out."

"Whoa..." Harper whispered, reaching out a hand to run it along the runes that glowed bright blue within the item. "What a weird glow."

"I know" Ivor said "I'm supposed to show it to-"

"YOU FOUND IT!"

* * *

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF NOTCH IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

Jesse completely ignored Ivor's shriek and stared in awe at the item Ivor was now clutching in a death grip. Harper had ended up halfway across the room before she realized who had snuck up on them, and Gabriel was glaring at Jesse like he quite wanted to slice the potionologist in half. "This is the greatest find of all time!"

The brown haired man was now hopping from foot to foot, and Ivor's terror was briefly subsided by the absolute hilarity of the sight.

"I can't believe you actually...what you're holding!"

"Alright spill, what does this thing do?" Ivor said.

"This proves what I've always suspected." Jesse breathed. "That glow...that enchantment is the work of a very old group of builders, a group so old they existed _before_ the Order of the Stone."

"Whoa." Gabriel said

"Dramatic." Harper added with a nod.

Jesse grinned at them "Right?"

"So what does the Flint and Steel do then?" Ivor asked, arching a brow.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I suspect it's related to the exciting part." Jesse replied "You see if these Old Builders actually existed, and if you found their temple, it means we're one step closer to finding..." he smirked "The Eversource."

Gabriel grinned, and elbowed Harper in the ribs "Looks like you came back just in time Harper."

"More powerful artifacts huh?" Harper asked curiously. Ivor was a bit more skeptical "Did you just make that up?"

Jesse shook his head "The Eversource is said to be an object of incredible power possessed by the Old Builders. It was some sort of treasure, or artifact, that gave them an endless supply of building materials. Think about it Ivor, that temple must have been it's hiding place!"

"Wow...Old Builders." Gabriel said "You learn something new every day."

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around this Eversource thing." Harper muttered, eying Jesse like she wasn't quite sure how sane he was. Which, frankly, was a very good question.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ivor said, smiling "We've already found that temple once, finding it again will be a snap."

"Excellent!" Jesse said "I shall pack my adventuring things immediately." and with that he took off, running out of the room before anyone else could say a word.

"Well...sounds like you guys have a lot to do so, I'll just be going." Harper said, sidling away. Before she could get too far, Gabriel's hand landed on her shoulder and the dark skinned male said "Nope, you're coming with. I need a buffer between me and Jesse."

Ivor rolled his eyes, but he couldn't deny the fact that he was happy Harper was coming along. "Let's get moving, before Jesse leaves without us."

* * *

"This is so exciting!" Jesse said, peering around the jungle with wide eyes. As he walked, he startled a pair of ocelots, who hissed at him and then ran away. "Adventure!"

A few steps behind him, Ivor, Gabriel, and Harper walked. Each had their weapons drawn, Harper still having her bow from the Witherstorm fight.

"Harper, I know it's daytime but watch our backs alright?" Gabriel said. Harper nodded, and paused for a few beats until she was a couple of steps behind the two boys. Lowering his voice to a whisper Gabriel muttered "I can't believe we're bringing Jesse with us."

Ivor arched a brow "Well, like it or not he is the one with all the information about this place. Besides, look at him, I don't think he's had this much fun...ever."

He nodded to ahead of them, where Jesse was doing some sort of weird dance/march...thing. Suddenly he stopped, and spread his arms apart "The trees are enormous! I love it!"

Ivor snorted, and he saw Gabriel fighting a grin. Gabriel then sighed and said "Alright, it's nice that he's...excited, but he's not my top choice for adventuring companions. He just...really gets on my nerves sometimes."

* * *

"Wow...it looks so different during the day." Ivor muttered, looking over the temple. It looked completely different. A hole in the ceiling that had been previously unnoticed let in light, and the lava bubbled as it drifted slowly through the trenches.

"Be careful what you touch." Jesse warned as they began to split up. "There could be traps everywhere."

After a while of silent searching, Jesse shouted "Gabriel, Architect Girl, are you as excited as I am?"

"I'm not sure that's possible." Gabriel muttered through gritted teeth.

"What?" Jesse demanded, head whipping around to face the dark skinned male with suspicion.

"He just means you're super excited Jesse." Ivor called, not wanting to see his friend soaked in the unknown potions Jesse had dangling from his belt.

"Excited?" Jesse cried with a laugh "I'm ecstatic! Thrilled! Overjoyed! The Eversource could finally be within my grasp!"

* * *

"There's some sort of room up there." Harper called. She had been studying the hole for the past few minutes, while Ivor and Gabriel had spoken, and now she shouted over her shoulder.

Ivor made his way closer, and peered upwards. Harper was right. That wasn't sunlight coming through the roof above them, it was torch light. Or, maybe glowstone or lava light. Whatever it was, it wasn't from the sun. "Looks promising." he said, nodding to her "I'm heading up."

"Fantastic!" Jesse said with a grin "We'll be right behind you."

As he grabbed hold of the vines and started to haul himself upwards, Ivor called "So, do you think this Eversource thing is up here?"

"It's hard to say." came Jesse's reply. "As legend has it, the Old Builders feared it's potential, so much that they hid it away, in a place it could never be found!" he let out a laugh that made Ivor make a mental note to find a psychiatrist for Jesse later. "And it never has been!"

Making it to the top, Ivor peered around the room. Instantly his eyes were drawn to a strange pattern in the wall, and he tilted his head, studying it. "Seems promising." he muttered to himself, walking forwards. Drawing his sword, just in case, Ivor planted one foot firmly on the pressure plate lying in front of the wall, and then took a quick step back, readying his weapon.

Slowly, the walls began to rumble, pistons firing as they pulled away. Jesse, Harper, and Gabriel making it up to the room in time to see a gold and quartz egg shaped structure be pushed out until it was flush with the new wall, minus a two block wide three block gap in the center almost like a..."A portal?" Gabriel muttered, tilting his head in confusion.

"Maybe the treasure is inside of the portal?" Ivor suggested, turning to glance at Jesse. The brown haired man shrugged and said "Perhaps. And that could be why the Flint and Steel was left here, to grant you access to the portal." Ivor nodded, and fished the item out of his inventory. Walking over to the portal, he crouched down, and clacked the items together. Again, blue flames shot out, but this time, instead of fading away, they ignited the quartz and a bright cyan portal glow appeared.

It also half exploded and sent Ivor, and the Flint and Steel flying.

Ivor coughed, and struggled to his feet. He reached for the Flint and Steel, but before his fingers could close around it, a new hand reached down. Ivor's head jerked upwards, and he stared into the face of Hadrien.

"Thanks for bringing this back to me champ." Hadrien said, a cruel smirk dancing across his lips "I knew you had to be good for something. Turns out you're really easy to follow." His gaze hardened and he said "Your adventure is over, Ivor. Time to go home."

Ivor snarled, and clenched his hands into fists.

Hadrien's glare intensified and he said "Step aside Ivor, we're going through that portal."

"Hadrien, enough is enough." Harper shouted "This is where it ends."

The former Architect barely spared her a glance as he said "Nether Stars, clear me a path."

* * *

About twenty cuts, five bruises and a black eye later, the Nether Stars vanished into the portal. Ivor and his friends hadn't been so lucky, and Gabriel was working on removing an arrow from Harper's arm, from when Mevia had surprisingly brought out a bow.

"We've got to follow them." Jesse insisted "If they get the Eversource, there's no telling what havoc they'll cause."

"Shouldn't we go back for Magnus and Ellegaard first?" Ivor asked "We might need them."

Jesse shook his head sharply "There's no time, we can't let Hadrien get the Eversource first."

"I don't usually like agreeing with Jesse, but the man's right." Gabriel said, looking up from Harper's injury. "Who knows what kind of trouble Hadrien could be causing through there?"

Ivor sighed "You're right." he said. As Harper got to her feet he said "Let's go."

One by one, the group walked into the bright blue glow.

The feeling of wind whistled by them, and the scent of grass, sky, and...chickens floated around them, before they vanished, leaving no sign that they had ever been there, except for the silent glowing portal.


	31. City in the Sky

Reality returned by method of pure empty space.

Empty space filled by a screaming black haired teen. A few seconds later he landed harshly on brown and green blocks of dirt, and a surprisingly warm blue and gold wearing male. The other man let out a rather sharp yelp, as he started to tumble forwards, where there was a cliff leading to nothingness waiting for him.

On instinct, Ivor's hands snapped out, the rest of his body still splayed out on the six by six area as he grabbed hold of Jesse whose eyes had gone extremely wide. A while later Gabriel appeared, and Ivor realized with a tang of annoyance that he'd spawned with his feet firmly on solid ground. "Where's Harper?" he asked once they'd gotten Jesse back onto solid ground.

"I would guess she's over there." Jesse muttered, pointing to something behind Ivor and Gabriel as he caught his breath. Ivor and Gabriel turned, and proceeded to lose their jaws to the void.

* * *

Harper woke up with dirt in her mouth.

Sitting up and spitting out said dirt, Harper tilted her head back, and realized she was next to a beautiful iron and gold structure. Struggling to her feet, a flash of pain shot through Harper and she realized her ankle was twisted at a rather...sharp angle. Leaning on the wall, Harper took a few deep breaths and then slowly began to hop towards what looked to be a massive gate.

What she saw shook Harper to the core.

Or rather, what she didn't see.

Nothing. Pure, empty space as far as the eye could see. Wait no...Movement caught Harper's eye and when she focused on it, her eyes widened. Although they were only blobs, they were definitely moving, no...digging? They were on top of a tall dirt tower, and were slowly digging it down. Harper quickly figured out why. They were planning to dig over. Rummaging through her inventory, Harper pulled out about a stack of sand. That would do nothing in its current form, however...she took half of the stack and quickly shaped it into Sandstone. Placing it in a single file bridge, Harper slowly began to bridge out to the island. They would need all the help they could get. She moved slowly, having to crawl on her knees, but she didn't want to risk going into the city alone.

* * *

"Stop pushing!" Jesse snapped, carefully balancing dirt in his arms as he glared at Gabriel. "I'm not pushing, Ivor's pushing!" Gabriel snapped back. "I'm just trying to keep back from the edge!" Ivor shouted back. "It's all edge." Jesse retorted.

"Let's just get the bridge started." Ivor muttered "Look, someone's already building out to us." Gabriel squinted and then let out a breath of relief. "It's Harper." then he frowned "But something's wrong...she's crawling, I think she might be hurt."

"Then let's hurry up and build out to her." Ivor said. Gabriel gave him a strange look, but nodded, slowly. "Alright. You take the lead, I'll pass you blocks." Ivor nodded, and crouched down for better balance. Carefully, Ivor placed the dirt block down, knowing that missing, placing one block in the wrong place, could spell certain doom.

* * *

"Took you long enough." Harper laughed. She winced as Ivor helped her to her feet, but nodded. They'd built a small platform where their two bridges met, so that they could spread out and take a breather before heading across the golden sandstone bridge into the strange city. Ivor blushed, and strangely, didn't feel the need to justify himself like he normally would. Instead he just turned back to face Jesse, to ask if he had any healing potions, and instead he saw the brown haired man dumping a bucket of lava into the eye hole of a dirt skull.

Ivor's eye twitched. Jesse came back towards them with a grin and Ivor glared at him. Jesse arched a brow and asked "What? I couldn't help myself." Gabriel groaned and muttered "It's Lukas all over again."

Shaking his head, Ivor just turned, and started walking across the bridge. Harper was right behind him, arms slung across his neck for better balance.

* * *

"You built."

Those are the words they're greeted with. A terrified red-headed female was staring at them. She was literally shaking, green eyes huge as she took a nervous step backwards.

"Hey there!" Harper said with a grin. "I love what you've done with your town, the gold and iron is absolutely-" before she can finish her words, the girl is shaking her head furiously. "You were building!" she said, taking another step back "Unauthorized building is against the law!"

There was a rather large and extremely awkward silence as Ivor, Gabriel, Harper, and Jesse all stared at the female.

Finally Gabriel said "You're saying there's a law against building?"

She nodded her head quickly "Yes! Building is forbidden!"

"This makes no sense!" Jesse muttered, although Ivor caught that his eyes were darting back to his lava creation, which probably wasn't going to go over too well with the locals if building wasn't allowed. "No sense at all."

Despite Jesse's words being mostly to himself, the female tried to stammer out an answer. "I...I...well it's it's ah...it's just the rules."

"Alright I'll bite." Ivor said "Why is building against the law?"

The teen bit her lip, revealing oddly sharp canines. "This conversation is making me seriously uncomfortable. First those other outsiders and now you..." she trailed off, shaking her head.

"Other outsiders?" Harper asked, perking up. She'd gotten herself off of Ivor's heels, and was now leaning with one arm slung across Gabriel, giving Ivor's shoulders a break. "Do you know where they are?"

"They...they went to the inn. I'm sorry but that's all I know." The female said, before taking off and vanishing into the alley ways.

"I wonder if everyone here is that...nervous." Jesse muttered, watching her retreat with a curious gaze.

* * *

"Wow...this place is...beautiful." Ivor said, eyes wide as he stared around the city. They'd decided to shed their armor, in order to better blend in. Jesse nodded "Indeed. Clearly the Eversource is capable of miraculous things." Harper tilted her head "But if it can summon any block, then why use iron and gold? Wouldn't diamond and emerald be just as beautiful but much rarer and thus cast a shadow of much more importance?"

Ivor scanned the buildings, and then nodded to the largest "Well, that one has emeralds, maybe it's where the person in charge lives?"

There was a half-beat of silence.

"As crazy as Hadrian's been lately..." Harper said slowly, eyes still glued to the emerald studded building "If he gets that thing...it would be...bad."

"If we beat him to it, then he won't be able to get his slimy hands on it though right?" Gabriel asked, glancing at the others.

"We need to find Hadrian." Ivor agreed, nodding at Gabriel. "He's got our Flint and Steel, which means he can get out of here and leave us trapped. Besides, he's up to no good. We need to stop him."

"That lady mentioned an inn right?" Gabriel asked, looking like he was running through their extremely odd conversation in his head. "That seems like our best lead." Harper nodded "Agreed."

"The Nether Stars already have a head start. We need to keep moving. Split up and see if you can find the inn, if not, ask around, but discreetly. We don't want to draw any attention to ourselves." Ivor said.

* * *

They'd split up fairly quickly. Jesse had dowsed Harper's leg in splash potion of Healing, and he'd also given her a Potion of Regeneration to drink.

Currently, Ivor found himself watching a rather ridiculous line of people, who all appeared to be waiting to use a Crafting Table. Making his way to a man a few people from the end, Ivor said "So, this is a long line just to use a Crafting Table." The man, with pale brown hair, nods, and looks down at the three bundles of wheat in his hand. "You're telling me. I'm so hungry I could just eat my wheat right here!" He took a deep breath. "But I won't. I'll be patient and turn it into delicious bread instead."

Ivor arched a brow. The man shifted on his legs slightly. "So...um...what can I do for you?"  
Ivor shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "I heard you guys have an inn somewhere around here, where is it?"

The man smiled "Oh, you're looking for Tim's place?" he chuckled slightly "The guy's hilarious. He's over that way." he pointed over Ivor's shoulder, towards a side street.

Ivor nodded "Tim huh? Thanks." the man shrugged.

Turning to walk away, Ivor's gaze was caught by a similar structure as that of the Crafting Table. Almost like a temple, but this one had a furnace inside, with no one waiting to use it.

Walking over to the man dressed in golden armor, Ivor flashed him a grin "Hey there." he said.

The man looked confused, and reached for a piece of paper in his inventory "Are you on the schedule for the furnace this afternoon?" he asked, reading through whatever was written. "Didn't think there were any more appointments today let's see..." He began to mutter names "Dale; ten stone blocks, Melissa; three cooked mutt-no wait she rescheduled, J-" before he could continue, Ivor interrupted with a small smile tugging at his lips "You keep the furnace locked up?" the guard looked upwards, confusion darting through his eyes "Did it do something wrong?" Ivor finished. The guard rolled his eyes, putting the paper back away. "If you wish to make an appointment, please speak with the Founder." he nodded to Ivor and said in a rather dismissive tone "Good day."

Once again, Ivor decided to make his way towards the side street the man had pointed him to.

And once again he was distracted. This time it was by a tall sign with bright white text. 'No building, no crafting, no brewing, no smelting, unless with explicit permission from the Founder. All complaints must be registered in person. That's it you can stop writing now.'

* * *

Still trying to get to this Tim person, Ivor could't help but stop to watch a pair of women. One of them, with deep ebony hair, was busy placing pieces of oak wood. The other woman had hair that seemed to be split into two . The left half was a bright fiery red, the right half was a bright icy blue. This woman was dressed in Diamond armor, and a diamond axe hung at her side. She was the one to flash a smile at Ivor and greet him. "Hello, you must be new to Sky City. Captain Marta at your service."

"So...what are you two up to?" Ivor asked. The Captain smiled again "Just supervising this citizen while she does her build."

The 'citizen' nodded eagerly, as she carefully placed a poppy. "The Founder finally approved my petition!"

Ivor arched a brow "The Founder?" he asked. Marta nodded "Yes, that's her palace up there. She's the Keeper of the Eversource. Builds everything you see here. Well, except for the small things that have been granted approval. Some days I can't even fathom how she keeps everything straight." a small blush danced across her face, and for the first time Ivor realized that the female's eyes were different colors. Her left eye was bright blue, and her right eye was a dark amber color.

"I'm a bit of a fan I must confess." Marta continued.

"So this Founder makes all the rules?" Ivor asked, trying to dig for as much information as he could get. The captain nodded "You got it, she's the one who protects us from the Eversource you see. That's why she gets to make the calls about what does or doesn't get built. It's really only fair."

"Like my build." the other female said, waving around at all the oak.

Marta nodded at the woman "It's not easy to get this much Oak Wood, your petition was very well handled."

Ivor frowned "But I don't understand why everyone isn't allowed to build."

Marta let out a soft laugh "Oh, what a sentiment. I mean, it's a nice thought, but..." she shook her head "It's crazy." she said, in a 'polite' tone.

Ivor could tell he was treading on thin ice. The guard was starting to reach for her weapon. Quickly he asked "So, what do you do for fun around here?" It worked, her arms relaxed and she grinned "Oh all sorts of things. Make wishlists of resources, practice low-inventory builds, some people do poetry." she let out a happy sigh "It's a wonderful place to live."

Ivor nodded slowly "Well, it was nice to meet you. I'll let you guys get back to it."

* * *

"Where should I put them?" a low whisper caught Ivor's attention as he was searching the street for Tim. A sign above two people read 'Tim's Inn' and given what he'd learned from the other people he'd spoken to, Ivor was fairly certain that the one with dark blue hair and a white shirt was the man they were looking for. In a low voice, he replied to the blonde male, who was holding a handful of sticks, "Just give them here, I'll deal with them." quickly, the blonde handed over his items, and the other man, Tim, quickly pocketed them. "Now get out of here" he hissed. The blonde nodded, and as he quickly vanished, Tim scanned the area, green eyes landing on Ivor. "Why hello there!" he said, rather nervously as his eyes darted back towards where his friend had vanished. "What can I do for you?"

Slowly, Ivor made his way over to the man. "Are you Tim?" he asked, deciding to cut right to the chase. Besides, he didn't want to confront the man right away, he might need the man's help after all! The man arched a brow "Depends on who's asking." he replied. Ivor changed topics "Some punks are trying to steal the Eversource."

Now THAT got a reaction. The man's eyes widened, and he straightened "Stealing the Eversource?" he breathed. Quickly his eyes snapped to the guard who was studying them from across the road, and he cleared his throat "How outlandish!" he said, rather loudly "Sounds like dangerous business to get mixed up in, if you ask me." He took a step backwards, reaching behind him for the door to his building. "Now, like I told those other outsiders, I can't help you-"

"This our guy?" Gabriel asked, walking towards Ivor and Tim with Harper and Jesse on his tail.

"He tell you where to find the Nether Stars?" Jesse asked, eying Tim with suspicion. "How many of you are there?" Tim snapped, hands curling into fists. "I told you I don't know anything!"

Before anything else could be said between the small group, a voice rose up, shouting from the main part of the city. "Attention, attention everyone!" from the sound of it it was the Captain from earlier. "Just a moment of your time please. Emergency Meeting in the Founder's Garden. Attendance is mandatory."

Exchanging curious looks, Ivor, Harper, Gabriel, and Jesse followed Tim back to the front of the large palace. Sure enough Marta was there. So was Hadrian, Mevia, Otto, and a blonde woman Ivor didn't recognize. Her hair was pale, almost like it had been dyed, and she had a black headset peeking out from her long hair.


	32. The Others

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally caught up - updates will be theoretically normal from now on

Ellegaard had taken Magnus with her for a number of reasons. He had an eye for iron, he'd be useful in the nether gathering Nether Brick for the stairs they'd need. But the main reason was frankly because she didn't trust Jesse. Oh sure he may say he's changed since the whole 'Wither Storm' thing, but an Ocelot couldn't change their stripes.

There was another reason, one she didn't want to admit to herself. And that was that she was scared. Scared of this new adventure, scared of the strange enchantment on the Flint and Steel. Scared of Hadrien and his new gang.

Ellegaard had never really liked adventure. She'd been terrified during the whole Witherstorm quest. Sure she didn't mind puzzles, or fighting off a few mobs to get some loot, but...adventuring into the unknown? She'd prefer just to stay back and let the others handle this. But she hadn't wanted to be alone, Ellegaard wasn't much of a people person, especially when she got focused on her redstone, but...she didn't like being alone all the time either. That was what she had loved about Redstonia, the people there were smart, they actually understood her...when she wasn't frozen by awe of course.

Magnus...he was smart in his own way. He might not look it...or act it half the time, but he was a griefer, and no griefer could survive by being an idiot. Then again Magnus and Axel were still alive, so that might not be entirely true, but Magnus was an expert when it came to explosions and blast radii. Not to mention he had the largest collection of music discs in Beacontown, due to his being able to get skeletons to shoot creepers no sweat.

There was no one she'd rather have at her side during this.

* * *

Tim had been having, quite possibly, the best day of his life.

He and the Build Club had been working on new recipes, and Nell, sweet, goddess, sky-blessed Nell, had discovered the crafting recipe for bows! Now all they needed were arrows, and they would be armed when the time came to invade the palace and liberate the Eversource.

And then a white haired male, followed by one with pale blue hair and one with black hair had charged into his inn, demanding the location of the Eversource. Tim had told him what everyone knew, that the Eversource was kept with the founder.

 _That_ had gotten the teen excited, and he demanded even more answers. Tim had replied, had to be a good citizen after all, and then the teen and his small group had vanished.

About twenty minutes passed. He received thirty-two sticks from Dale, who worked for the Founder as a wood-cutter. A position that had taken him almost two years to be able to get items to the secret Build Club members without raising suspicion.

And then the other strangers arrived, begging to know about the white haired teen.

And then, just Tim's luck, the Founder had called a mandatory attendance meeting.

_By the void this day cannot get any worse._

* * *

_*smack* *smack*_

Petra's sword flashed against the training dummy. She'd been training in a secluded village for almost two months now, ever since...ever since she'd gotten her memory back. She'd barely been able to hold it together during the ceremony. Ivor hadn't wanted a big fuss, but Lukas had insisted on it. Petra, out of habit, had backed him up. So had Axel and Olivia.

_*smack* *smack*_

It had felt...strange being reunited with them.

Even stranger had been Jesse's presence. For almost twelve years, Petra had believed that Jesse was dead. Slain by her hand. And then suddenly discovering that, not only was he alive, but he was full of vengeance well...it was...hard. Even harder had been after, when he'd gone to her when they were alone and it was nearing midnight.

_*smack* *smack*_

She'd wondered if he wanted to kill her. If he had brought her to that dark, silent corner to take personal revenge.

_*smack* *smack*_

If she was being honest...

_*smack* *smack*_

She would have let him.


	33. Splitting Paths

"People of Sky City, I'm sorry to pull you from your activities, but something urgent has come to my attention."

The woman spoke loudly, her voice amplified by the headset poking out of her pale blonde hair. She spoke like she was the sweetest thing since sugar, but something about her just rubbed Ivor the wrong way. Probably the fact that the Nether Stars were standing just behind her, Hadrien grinning like a wolf.

"A crime has been committed."

Ivor's gaze snapped off of Hadrien, who was scanning the crowd, and locked onto the woman. Quickly, he sent a prayer to Notch that it wasn't their bridge she was talking about.

Around them, people were getting rather uneasy, whispering to themselves.

"Please, please, remain calm." the woman continued, making a 'settle down' gesture with her hands. "Earlier today, outsiders built a bridge into our fair city from a distant island." she pointed an accusing finger, like a child tattling on their sibling, out past the open gates, where Jesse's lava skull was in full display.

Ivor shot the brown-haired man a glare, and he had the sense to look guilty. Harper was pale, and Gabriel...well Gabriel was glaring at Jesse as well. Tim stared at them, jaw parting slightly as he watched their reactions to the blonde woman's words.

"Now, whether they know it or not, these outsiders have violated Sky City's most sacred law. No unauthorized building."

The crowd began to shout, and guards had to run off of the steps surrounding the blonde woman in order to mingle with the crowd, calming them usually with a hand to the shoulder, although Ivor could see a few have to resort to drawing their iron swords.

Tim was giving them a curious look "Wait...was that you?" he asked with curious blue-gray eyes. "Are _you_ the bridge builders?"

Ivor rubbed the back of his head, gaze darting between Tim, the guards who were just out of ear-shot, and the Nether Stars. "I didn't know it was against the law" he finally blurted quietly. "I mean, it was just a bridge!" Tim stared at them in awe. For a half second, Ivor was afraid he was going to call out to the guards, but someone beat him to it.

"Ivor, wherever you are step forward now."

Ivor whirled around to face the woman, whose face was a mask of calm. Behind her though, Hadrien was grinning like a jackal. "I have already been informed of your identity, and while I appreciate that you may be unaware of our laws, ignorance is no excuse. Sky City is small, and I promise you that should you try to hide, I will find you."

Jesse arched a brow, and then started moving forwards slightly. Ivor grabbed hold of his wrist and hissed "What are you doing?" Jesse smirked at him "If we go willingly, we get closer to the eversource." Gabriel frowned "But what if she just locks us in jail?" Harper tilted her head slightly "What if we split up? Two of us go up there, claiming we got separated and are willing to help find you, while the other two hide and keep an eye on things."

Ivor frowned "I don't like it, but it's probably our best bet. Jesse, Hadrien somewhat knows about you. He'd be willing to believe that you would betray us, but you gotta play it up. Harper, Hadrien really doesn't like you, so you going with them wouldn't be the best idea." He turned to Gabriel, eyes pleading. The dark skinned man groaned but nodded "Fine. I'll play it out like I don't want Jesse to try and help, that should buy him some points." a mischievous glint entered his eyes "Can I use force?" Jesse paled, but Ivor just shrugged "As long as you don't leave any lasting damage."

Jesse's eyes narrowed "Excuse me?" Ivor turned to him "What? a few cuts from him will convince them to separate you two, so you can work things from different angles." Jesse let out a low growl, but he nodded "Fine." he spat, grabbing hold of Gabriel "Let's go."

* * *

It had been hard, to watch Jesse and Gabriel get manhandled by the guards, but as he, Harper, and Tim pulled back into the crowd, Tim having promised them someplace safe to hide, Ivor knew they had made the right decision. They could gather more intel this way.

Tim took them back to his inn, in the commotion of Gabriel and Jesse revealing themselves, they'd been able to get away easily. They were currently standing inside of the main floor of the inn. A reasonably sized room with about five tables, and a bar with a pale skinned man behind it, whose size could rival Axel's. The man was polishing a cup, but had been keeping an eye on them ever since they came in.

"Before I show you what I'm about to show you, I'm going to need you to swear an oath of secrecy." Tim said, blue-gray eyes strangely determined as he waited for a response.

Ivor raised his right hand into the air, and Harper quickly followed suit "I swear by Notch that I will not reveal what you are about to show." Harper nodded "I also swear it."

Tim tilted his head slightly "Who's- never mind. Thank you, it means quite a lot to me." He waved his hand to the man behind the counter "Slab, the switch if you please"

The man grinned, and reached for something underneath the counter. He pulled a switch, and pistons began to fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's short, next one will be longer  
> Remember to review!  
> ~Savannah


	34. Build Club and the Founder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The summer is kinda hectic for me (see the FF version for more details or just ask) so enjoy these updates while you can.  
> Last week of June I'll have no wifi

If Jesse said so himself, he was an excellent actor.

"I'm the one who built the skull!" he shouted from behind a man with shaggy blonde hair. The man jumped near out of his skin, and bolted away as the guards' heads all snapped towards the source. Gabriel glared at him, and in a stage whisper hissed "What are you doing? Do you want us to get caught?"

If Jesse's words hadn't convinced the guards, Gabriel's sure did.

"Put your hands in the air and step forwards!" Captain Marta shouted, red and blue hair whipping behind her as she ran towards them, weapon in hand.

Jesse's hands instantly shot upwards, and he even hopped up slightly. Gabriel elbowed him in the ribs, causing his hands to drop down, but at that point it was too late for any chance of running. They were surrounded. "You are an idtiot!" Gabriel growled. Jesse, arms still wrapped around his mid-section, shot a glare upwards, and his scowl deepened when he saw the smirk dancing in Gabriel's eyes. The fool was enjoying this! OOoohhhhh plan or no plan he was going to pay.

Jesse's hands were forced from his ribs, and pinned behind his back. Gabriel was treated the same way, and the crowd parted to let the guards jostle the two males up the steps until they were standing in front of the blonde-woman and the idiots who had gotten him into this mess. As Hadrien took a few steps forwards, smirking like a shark, Jesse growled, bared his teeth, and bit at the air between them, satisfied at the jump it earned him.

The woman crossed her arms disapprovingly. "So...you are Ivor?" she asked, arching a brow as she spoke with disdain very heavy in her voice. Jesse smirked, tilted his head slightly and said "Oh no, I'm not Ivor, I'm just the guy that made him famous." Gabriel snorted, almost in sync with Otto. The green-shirted man asked "And how exactly do you figure that?"

Jesse smirked at him "Simple. I'm the one that created the Witherstorms." Otto's eyes widened, and he took a half-step back "But...that, you...what?"

The blonde-woman frowned and said "Enough, Marta, escort these two to the throne room." Jesse grinned, looking quite like a mad-man "Oh there's no need for that, I'll tell you where Ivor is right now!"

Honestly, he should have seen the punch to the nose coming, same with the resulting crack and flare of pain.

Holy Herobrine Gabriel had a strong right hook.

* * *

Ivor stared.

And then stared some more. The lever that Slab had pulled had pulled open a portion of wall, revealing stairs going downwards. Tim had led the way down, practically buzzing with excitement.

The stairs led to a small balcony, that overlooked a reasonably sized room with about seven to nine people inside. "Welcome my friends." said Tim, spreading his arms wide "To Build Club!"

Leading the way down a smaller set of stairs to the main floor, Tim continued "Everything you see before you, was built from resources my people saved, or...er...obtained." Ivor arched a brow, but Tim apparently didn't notice, because he was too busy grinning.

"It can't be easy to come by some of this stuff." Harper said, eyes wide as she spotted a small stage with the frame for an Iron Golem, minus one of the 'arms' and a pumpkin. "Nice work."

Ivor nodded "Pretty impressive secret hideout Tim."

Tim's eye twitched "It is not a secret hideout." he said, crossing his arms indignantly "It is a Build Club."

Ivor blinked "Riiiigghhhhht." he said slowly, nodding his head.

Tim sighed, and then began to explain. "You see, one day, about three years ago, I was just a citizen of Sky City like any other. I wanted to make a community garden, so I put in a petition for a dirt block, and a couple of flowers." he let out a soft laugh "And mercy me, it was granted!" he turned, facing one of the crafting tables scattered around the room. "But in my haste to build the garden, I accidentally dropped the dirt, and it fell...right into the Void."

Ivor glanced at Harper, and then back at Tim. "For my crime, I was tossed into the Founders Dungeon. I was there for two years."

"Wait, you just dropped some dirt. What was the crime?" Ivor asked, trying to wrap his head around the story they'd just been told.

"The crime, Ivor. Was the 'Egregious Wasting of Resources'" Tim said, turning to face them once again. Harper's eyes widened, but she stayed silent as the midnight-blue haired man continued "You see, in our world, when something falls over the edge, it is gone. Forever. But, I have always believed that, just because building is risky, doesn't mean that no one should do it." he sighed "If I had known you and your friends were builders, I would have helped you sooner. There wouldn't have been a need for your friends to be captured."

Harper crossed her own arms "I don't know, knowing Jesse he'd probably find a way to get captured anyway, if he thought it would get him closer to the Eversource." Ivor snorted, but Tim just looked confused. "Y..yes" he stammered "Well, still. The longer they are there, the more at risk they are of being locked up for a very long time. We need to get them out."

Ivor tilted his head "We?" he asked. Tim nodded, but before he could continue, a green wearing blonde woman made her way over to them and eyed them rather suspiciously. "Yo Tim." she said. Tim turned towards her, eyes widening slightly, until he quickly sketched his face into a grin. "Hello Nell, Ivor, lady-I-don't-know-the-name-off, this is Nell, why, just a few days ago she discovered the crafting recipe for Bows! It takes quite a bit of string, which it very hard to get, but-" Nell interrupted him "Dude, why are you bringing in noobs? They just showed up, we don't know anythin' about them! It's pretty hard to keep this a secret club, without bringing in a couple o' randos"

"Hey, don't worry," Harper said, flashing the blonde a grin "We're builders, just like you!" Ivor nodded "Harper's right, we're the ones who built the bridge into town today."

 _That_ sure got their attention. "Milo, are you cray?" Nell asked, gaping at the innkeeper "The most wanted criminals in the city? We gotta turn em in before the guards come knocking our doors down!"

"Uh...let's not do that?" Harper suggested weakly. She was ignored, as Tim spoke up, loud enough to reach everyone's ears. "I assure you, harboring them is worth the risk! They are the epitome of Build Club material!"

"Alright then." said a different girl, thick and stocky with raven hair tied up into pig-tails. "If Tim says you're these amazing builders, then prove it."

"Now see here-" Tim began.

"Fine." Ivor said, glaring at the girl. They didn't have time for this, but arguing would make it take longer. Tim blinked in surprise. "Oh, well then...alright. Here." he walked over to a chest and opened it, nodding to Ivor. "In here, are some of the resources we've collected. We very well can't have them in our inventory now can we? Feel free to take whatever you need. If you build something from where you come from well..." he let out a soft laugh "That ought to prove to everyone just who you are."

Ivor nodded, and crouched down. There were iron bars, iron blocks, some stone, a few sticks, and about 16 pieces of wool. Taking out the wool, two sticks, two iron ingots, as well as one iron block, Ivor made his way over to the crafting table.

Oh he was going to show these people the builds of their lifetime. "Harper, got any Pumpkins?" she blinked, and then pulled open her inventory, rooting around in it for a few seconds before nodding "Only one, Gabriel gave it to me, said I should use it for pie or something since well..." she chuckled "We both know he can't cook anything fancier than a baked potato and some steak." Ivor nodded, and said "Toss it here would you?" as he finished crafting a banner. "Also got any dye?" Harper nodded pulling out some Rose Red, Cactus Green, and a touch of Yellow. Handing it all to him, she stepped back and watched curiously as he smeared dye across the banner.

Putting the finished banner quickly away, Ivor moved on to the next project. He, Harper and Gabriel all had their enchanted weapons from the Wither Fight. Jesse...well he'd loaded up on potions so he would be fine. But if these people had just now discovered how to craft a bow well...placing the iron ingots on top of the stick, Ivor quickly made a sword. Tucking that away as well, he moved from the crafting table to the iron frame.

Placing down the arm, Ivor held the pumpkin up and said "Are you guys ready?" Tim nodded eagerly, and a few others did as well. Ivor dropped the pumpkin, and in a poof of smoke, an Iron Golem was formed, letting out a deep groaning noise.

Enter: screams of terror from the entire Build Club.

* * *

Jesse's nose was still leaking blood by the time they'd gotten to the throne room. Despite leaving at the same time, the Founder and the punks had somehow gotten there first. The Founder had awarded the punks with a 'great and honorable gift' in the form of sugarcane, carrots, and melons.

"Now then." the Founder said, as the white-haired man led the other two away "I believe that this man here was about to tell me where the criminal Ivor is?" Gabriel snarled "Don't you dare Jesse!"

Jesse rolled his eyes and said "Please, you think you can stop me Gabriel? Ivor has been nothing but a thorn in my side since I met him. Why should I protect him?" the woman grinned "Well then, please. Where is he?" Jesse opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Gabriel broke out of the guard's grasp, reached for his inventory, pulled out a sword, and sliced it neatly across Jesse's side.

It was a flesh wound, and would heal on its own within a few minutes, but HOLY HEROBRINE THAT HURT!

Jesse recoiled back, and the guard holding him let go and lunged for Gabriel.

Within minutes, Gabriel was pinned to the ground, an iron sword aimed at his head, and roughly twenty arrows if one counted all of the guards aiming bows at him. "ENOUGH!" the Founder shouted "Guards, take him to the dungeon." As Gabriel was dragged away, Jesse thought he saw a small wink, before the male was marched out of the room. "And get him to the healers. We can't get answers if the man giving them bleeds out first."


	35. Shadows of the Future

Magnus yawned as Ellegaard fiddled with a feather pen and a piece of paper. He'd finished his job of smelting iron forever ago, and he'd also gotten his second job of making the Nether Brick Fences done, both before Ellie had gotten done calculating how to safely dig a pit for the lava to fall into.

At this point, he was tempted just to blow it up, but that probably wouldn't go over well with the other citizens. Or Ellegaard, who was frowning and biting her lower lip. Or Jesse, since the explosion would likely decimate most of the lower half of the house.

So...explosives were probably a horrible idea.

Thrumming his fingers along his leg, Magnus yawned again and turned his head towards the new Order Hall. He wanted to hurry up and get done so that he and Ellie could go and catch up with Ivor and the others.

"Alright, I've finished calculations." Ellegaard said. Magnus barely resisted the urge to whoop.

"Now we can dig the pit, and place the fences, but we'll need to make sure they're the perfect distance away and-"

As she continued on, Magnus drooped.

He was going to be stuck here forever.

* * *

Otto fidgeted slightly as he knelt before the Founder.

Mevia, who was at his side, elbowed him sharply, and he bit back a hiss.

Ever since the Witherstorms had been killed, for sure, not the whole 'fake death thing' that had freed people from its belly only to be re-devoured, Hadrien had been acting strangely. If Otto didn't know any better, he'd say his white-haired friend was...going insane.

Then there were his violent outbursts. Sure Hadrien had always been kind of...well...a jerk. But he'd never, never physically attacked anyone. Well, unless that time he'd had to carve Zombie Infection out of Otto when the green wearing member of the then-Architects had been too busy focusing on a Creeper to realize a Zombie was within biting range. But that had been a surgical procedure, not an actual attack.

But that had been before.

Now? Slapping Otto and Mevia, punching them in a non-playful manner, they were starting to become regular. Hadrien was filling up with rage.

A rage so fierce, that Otto pitied the fool who would make him snap.

* * *

Jesi's arms were crossed as she watched with narrowed brows the two members of the Order of the Stone cleaned up the lava mess.

Really, did they have to spend so long deciding whether or not to remove one block? She had other matters to attend to!

Sighing, she rubbed the space between her eyes. _I should have stayed in the Slime selling buisness_ she thought with a small groan.

But Slimes were quite aggravating to find, especially because all the closest swamps were inhabited by witches and their children, not to mention Jesi wasn't exactly the best fighter in the world.

"Are you sure you can't move any faster?" she asked. Ellegaard poked her head out of the hole, just under the cobble that had been temporarily placed to keep the lava from spilling onto the diggers. "Sorry miss, but we need to be precise. If the hole is too shallow, it could overflow. If its too deep, miners might run into it and that would just be a disaster."

As the hero ducked back into the hole, Jesi buried her face in her hands and groaned.

* * *

Stella had excused the Nether Stars while she spent some time thinking. The two suspects they'd apprehended seemed to both be associates of Ivor, although how much they respected him, well...there was a chasm there. That, or they were the best actors in the universe. But honestly, she was the Founder, who would lie to her? No one. That's who.

Leaving the throne room though the open back, Stella sat in one of her favorite places. Underneath the first tree. The dirt she was standing on was from the first island. Reaching up and taking off her ear-set, Stella sighed softly.

She didn't remember anything before the Islands, as she called the time period before Sky City. She only knew them, and Benedict, her faithful companion. She had a vauge memory of sadness, and...betrayal. But there were no faces, no words. She remembered only blood on her head, dirt under her feet, and the crowned animal who became her best...her only friend.

Her inventory had been nearly full. Dirt, lava, water, iron gold and diamonds...not that she'd known what they were. But there was one thing that was different. A book, Habits of the Endermen. The author was someone named Lukas, but there was no face to go with the name.

Those were her only clues. Endermen, blood, betrayal and blocks.

She'd started building, and before long, as her island stretched outwards, she found more and more people, living, like her, on the islands.

With a few, carefully constructed questions however, she discovered that they weren't like her at all. Where she had emptiness, they had full lives. Where she knew only her pet, they knew mothers, fathers, siblings, and on occasion best friends.

The most advanced thing on their islands was farms, and a watchtower or two. On hers, there was a palace, a beautiful castle.

She was different, but she couldn't let them know that.

She rallied them together, she became their leader. Distant, wise, level-headed.

She let them think they knew everything about her.

In reality?

They knew nothing at all.

* * *

A young woman with raven black hair and green eyeshadow was busy.

Even with her...experience, it had taken nearly three years to build her mansion.

And building was only the beginning. She had redstone to lay, traps to place. Secret passages to connect.

Not to mention portraits to draw. She'd gotten a strange tip, a book, with images of people who would be arriving soon. She'd prepared their images first. She didn't plan on using them though, honestly, she'd just used their references as practice.

She would cast revenge on the First Ones. They would pay for banishing her to this wretched place.

They thought she didn't have it in her to kill people?

She would prove them wrong.

* * *

Green eyes darted nervously as a woman with whitening hair darted through the mesa.

She didn't have much time, especially since _it_ sent scouts to her house daily.

She'd been working on transferring her items for years now, one retrieval trip per week.

The most important items she'd taken first, redstone, books, her blood red portal key.

She'd had it with her since she left.

Isa had been the first to go, claiming that 'respawn or not' it wasn't right to kill people for sport. She had been right, of course, but agreeing with her would mean certain doom. Adrien and the others had banished her. Lukas, upon hearing this news, declared that they couldn't be friends if this was what they got up to when he was away traveling. He tried to find her, but last she had heard was that he'd gotten separated from his key and stranded in a perfectly normal world.

Then, Stella had threatened to go into the worlds, gathering heroes to stand up to the others.

She wasn't sure what had happened, but she knew it hadn't been pretty if the blood-stains on the main dais were anything to go by.

She hadn't been able to handle it anymore.

She'd been so afraid of cracking.

She left, terrified for her life.

She went into the first inhabited world she could find without a respawn of any sort. Crown Mesa it was called.

She fled, a coward.

She'd tried to make up for it, by creating a wonderful redstone device for the people who treated her like kin.

If only she hadn't been so stupid.

* * *

Meanwhile, in some strange black, void-like realm, a man with red hair and glowing golden eyes was watching everything unfold.

Screens surrounded him, and a smirk played on his lips. Finally, all of his subtle nudging had played off, Ivor had finally discovered the other worlds.

It would take some time to prepare, maybe even years, but he would be ready. He would face off against the black haired teen.

It would be the greatest battle ever seen.


	36. Inside the Palace

The 'healers' of Sky City were the most incompetent excuses for potionologists Jesse had ever seen. They'd peered at his cut, scratched their heads, and then turned to a thick-paged book which seemed to have brewing recipes in it. By the time they'd made a Potion of Healing, Jesse's wound had healed itself! But he took the bottle anyways, accepting it into his hands, lifting it to his lips, and then quickly swapping it out with a water bottle when they weren't looking. Downing the water swiftly, he shoved it in their hands.

This seemed to satisfy him, and the blonde woman told him to rest on the bed while they reported to the founder. Internally, Jesse rolled his eyes. Seriously? They were leaving him alone in a room full of brewing ingredients? How stupid were these people?

The instant he was alone, Jesse was up and searching the room. He only took one or two of things there were multiple of. He also opened the book the healers had used and creased it open to several pages that would 'explain' the missing items as failed potion attempts.

Footsteps sounded outside, and Jesse quickly closed his bag, jolting back to the bed and sitting on it quickly. Acting like he was sitting up as the door swung open, revealing three guards in silvery iron armor, Jesse arched a brow. "Can I help you?" he asked, doing his best to add an extra rasp to his voice. It wasn't too hard, especially with his scar, just a little pressure in the right place, and presto, gravelly voice.

"Now that your wounds have been attended to, the Founder wishes to speak with you." Jesse bit back a grumble of irritation. He'd been hoping for more time to search for the Eversource. Nodding he said "Of course, will she be meeting me here, or are you to tell her I'm on my way?" the guard who'd originally spoken frowned at him "We will be escorting you to her."

Jesse sighed "Of course you will."

* * *

Gabriel crossed his arms as he was forced to watch the captain of the guard go through his stuff.

Alright, so he wasn't being forced to, but the bi-haired woman was touching his things. Gabriel would rather feed his soul to the Nether than let anyone steal his items from him for good. Gripping the iron bars tighter, Gabriel bit back a growl and Marta pulled out his favorite weapon, a heavily enchanted Diamond Sword, that had taken absolutely forever to make.

Marta simply frowned at the weapon, and passed it to another guard who placed it in a chest behind them, on the other end of the alley. Gabriel bit back a huff of annoyance. They were making it more and more complicated for him to make a quick and easy break out.

Marta picked up some more of Gabriels inventory, and Gabriel groaned, leaning his head against the jail bars.

If Ivor didn't hurry up and rescue him, Gabriel was going to snap and break himself out.

* * *

"Alright my friends, this should take us right to the throne room." It was nearly midnight, which meant Jesse and Gabriel had been held in the palace for almost twelve hours. They'd spent most of that time calming the members of Build Club,

Tim's voice was barely more than a whisper as he, Ivor and Harper crouched at the base of one of the palace walls. Directly above them was a window, where a form could be seen patrolling. "Once inside, we'll need to find the secret entrance that the Founder supposedly uses."

Ivor arched a brow "How do you know all of this?" he asked. Ivor grinned "Em, back in Build Club, the woman who challenged your 'golem', she works with the guard as Build Club's undercover agent. She keeps us safe, distracting the guards and all, and she brings us items on occasion. In return, we care for her younger sister Natalie, since their parents are dead."

Harper titled her head "How did they die?"

Tim looked at her sadly. "Like many at Build Club, they are...they were dreamers. They believed in the freedom to build, but...they also believed that there was a world under the void. They...they jumped off of the edge." He turned his head, clearly trying to avoid showing the tears welling in the corners of his eyes "This was three years ago."

Harper and Ivor exchanged a sad look. Tim was silent for a minute, before he looked back at them, a small, half-hearted smile flickering on his lips. "But doing what we are doing, freeing the Eversource, this is what they would have wanted!"

* * *

At the throne room, they'd met up with Jesse and Gabriel, the former of which having been allowed to explore while the guards checked out the areas he'd directed them to, all false leads of course, the latter having influenced the Captain into 'letting' him out of jail.

"The Founders secret passage to the Eversource is supposed to be here somewhere." Tim said, gray eyes darting around the throne room quickly. Ivor nodded "If its here, we'll find it." he promised. Glancing at the others he said "Let's split up, we'll find it faster." They nodded, and began to wander through the room. Jesse went instantly to a bookshelf in the far right corner, Gabriel began eyeing the throne, Harper went over to a minecart track leading to nowhere, and Tim walked through the massive opening behind the throne.

"I'm getting a very 'door' vibe from this." Ivor muttered, making his way over to Harper. The black haired girl nodded and said "We need something to activate these rails though, and probably to open up either the wall or floor, depending on where it goes." Ivor nodded "I'll look around, see if you can find any more clues as to where it goes."

Harper nodded, and Ivor stepped away. Deciding to find Tim, he went behind the throne out into the open air, and instantly felt dizzy. There was about fifteen blocks total in the small area, and it was crammed with a tree, and a cobblestone generator. Nothing else, just empty air leading straight into the void.

"I'm very grateful to you, you know." Tim said as Ivor came up behind him. Ivor smiled, resting a hand on the blue haired man's shoulder "Hey, give yourself some credit. You've done Build Club proud." he reached into his inventory, and pulled out the banner he'd made earlier "Here" he said, handing it over. Tim frowned at it, fingers tracing the BC Ivor had dyed onto it. Ivor smiled slightly "It's a banner, I figured you could put it down once we take the eversource, that way everyone knows that the people are in control now, not some stuck up Founder."

* * *

The bookcase Jesse had been studying was full of rather strange titles. _Twisted Hybrids, My Own Fault, Just a Game,_ and _Powerfully Alone_ among others. But the one that stuck out? Habits of the Endermen.

By Lukas.

The blonde man was going to be locked in a room when they got back. A pitch black room with a blinding light aimed right at his eyeballs until Ivor learned why a controlling blonde woman who lived in an island in the sky, had one of his books.

* * *

It had taken a while to put together a lever. Ivor had ended up using the Cobble generator the Founder had set up, as well as a stick he got from a dead bush in the back corner. Placing it swiftly, Ivor waved everyone over, and then with a single, smooth movement, pushed it on. The wall opened up, about four blocks wide, and minecarts rumbled out of the newly revealed space and clicked into place.

Jesse and Tim were the first two in the carts, and Jesse waved an arm impatiently. "Hurry up!" he hissed, eyes twinkling with excitement "We're close! Eversource, here we come!"


	37. The Mob Room

For a split-second, nobody moved. Nobody breathed. And then the Creeper hissed fiercely, already glowing white. Jesse, still under it, paled, and quickly reached for his inventory. As the white flashes began to speed up, Ivor finally snapping out of his stupor and starting to reach for a weapon, Jesse pulled a potion bottle out of his bag and threw it upwards. It smacked against the low ceiling, and the black liquid inside rained down on the creeper.

The Creeper instantly stopped flashing white, and instead began to flash red, hissing with each burst, until it finally exploded in a poof of smoke. Jesse however, had been hit by some of the liquid, though thankfully he'd only flashed red once, before gulping down a dark red potion and breathing out a sigh of relief.

But even as Ivor began to wonder just what Hadrien had been up to during this, he saw the white haired fiend standing behind the Founder, who was dangerously close to an exposed portion of wall. A horrible design plan, as it led straight into the void. Hadrien's hands moved backwards in such a smooth movement, that Ivor almost couldn't believe what was about to happen.

And then it did, and he was aware of the room moving behind him, of _him_ moving, reaching forwards, and grabbing hold of the Founder's arms just before she fell off of the island. Hadrien spat out a curse, and likely moved to shove him off as well, but someone, Ivor couldn't see who, stopped him. They must have, for he let out a shriek of rage and started attacking whoever it was.

Ivor pulled the woman up, much to the protest of his screaming arm muscles. He was about to turn and see what was going on, to join the battle, to do something, when Harper screamed. Ivor turned, and the world seemed to freeze. Harper, arms and legs bleeding so much her skin seemed to be drenched in red, her sword flying from her hand...

as she fell through the hole in the wall.

Ivor saw red.

* * *

He wasn't sure how it happened. One minute he'd been flying at Hadrien, shrieking incoherently, and the next his face had met Hadrien's fist, and he was stumbling backwards. "IVOR!" he thought he heard someone shout, and then he was tripping over something, someone? He heard the sound of the Founder shrieking, as she, the thing he had tripped over, was dragged down with him.

And the two of them fell into the void.

* * *

Ivor wasn't sure when he blacked out, or how long they'd been falling when he woke up. He was met with the intense glare of the Founder, who began screaming at him the instant he was awake enough to hear her, or maybe she'd been screaming for longer. Her voice did sound a little hoarse. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Ivor winced. Alright, so maybe it was a little his fault, he had tripped over her, but did she really need to be so loud? The only other noise was the wind whistling up against their ears as they fell. "Thanks to you, now we get to see what really happens when you fall off the islands!"

Ivor decided to ignore her. "Do you see Harper? She fell off right before us."

"Oh, why yes." The Founder replied, voice quite literally dripping with sarcasm "The first thing I did after falling off the edge was look for your friend." Ivor shot her a glare, which seemed to fly right over her head as she continued "I don't know whether I want our deaths to be painless for my sake, or excruciating for yours!"

Ivor decided to keep looking downwards.

And that's when the entire world seemed to blur as they fell through a cloud, right before...

Ivor let out a strangled gasp, which the Founder didn't even hear, as she was still ranting on about how if he hadn't been such a greedy pig, then Hadrien would never have gone to Sky City to 'warn her'.

"Land!" Ivor finally managed to say, as he continued to stare at the massive lake that was growing closer to them by the second.

There was also lava pouring down from the sky into the middle of the lake, which would have been more terrifying if they weren't in complete and utter shock.

* * *

Ivor noticed three things when he landed into the water.

A coral reef at the bottom of the lake, blood in the water, and a pair of dolphins tossing around a dirt block.

Struggling upwards for air, Ivor heaved in gasps of precious air, and swam for land. Stumbling up the sand, Ivor decided there really was nothing like solid ground underneath you, and was about to lay down and just exist with nothing trying to kill him.

Then he saw the inventory bags. Frowning, Ivor started to make his way towards them, until he heard Harper's voice. "Holy Notch you're down here too?" Ivor's head snapped upwards, his midnight orbs meeting Harper's gray ones. Her left arm was clutching her right, and she wasn't putting any weight on her left ankle, but other than that she looked no worse for wear.

Aside from the fact that she was soaking wet. "Harper, you're alive!" he said, eyes lighting up. If she'd died falling down here...then Hadrien was going to wish that he'd died in the Witherstorm's belly. Harper nodded "Just barely, Hadrien's a lot tougher than I remember."

Ivor lowered his gaze "I'm sorry I didn't do more to help, I only had a few seconds there and then..." he cut himself off with a shudder, remembering the insane light in Hadrien's eyes as he'd kicked Ivor out of the city.

Harper rested a hand on his shoulder, and smiled at him "Its alright Ivor, there's nothing you could have done." she looked around a the world around them and whispered "You know, I still can't believe this is down here. Em's parents were right. There is something beyond the void after all." her eyes widened, and then furrowed suspiciously "But if they came down here, then why didn't they go back up? At least for their kids?"

"If T and Clutch _are_ down here, then they have quite a bit of explaining to do." Ivor winced, and turned around to see the Founder, soaked to the bone, arms crossed slightly. But it was hard to view her as mad, when her expression was quite clearly shock. She heaved a sigh, and ran a hand through her hair "I forbade anyone from jumping off of the island, because I thought it was two dangerous. Those two, they were the only ones who believed that there was something down here." she let out a broken, sobbing laugh "And just look at this."

Ivor's eyes weren't on her any longer. They were focused on the twin inventory bags he'd seen earlier. They were twined around a tree, as if the sapling had grown up with them on it. Making his way over, he brushed off the dust on one of them, where the name was etched in bright golden thread, and paled.

It read _Clutch_.

* * *

They'd been busy placing the two inventory bags inside of Stellas when the monsters started raining from the sky.

They'd been digging up dirt to climb back up when they uncovered a cave with an egg shaped portal.

They'd been climbing upwards, pillaring straight up, when it began to rain.

Harper had stayed behind, too injured to make the climb back up to Sky City, and had gotten started on making a lit up shelter for the people who would be coming down to the surface soon.

Stella, for that was the Founder's name, had agreed that keeping her people on that small, tiny island, would be cruel.

But nothing, the monsters and the lightning, the blood from Harpers injuries, or the screams that they began to hear as they got closer, nothing prepared them for what they saw as Sky City came into view. Ghasts flew above the city shooting fireballs at anything that moved. Creepers were exploding left and right, and zombies lurched after their victims.

Ivor's hands clenched into fists. Hadrien had gone too far.

And he was going to pay.


	38. Fallen Kingdom

The climb up had taken almost two hours. Daylight had given way to dusk, and the moon was just visible in the horizon by the time they reached the bridge Ivor and the others had made earlier. They'd found it by using the lavafall made by Jesse's skull. Ivor would never admit it, but the lava had actually come in handy. When Sky City had first come into view, about fifteen minutes earlier, it had been like stepping into a horror movie.

Ghasts could be heard, even from this far away, and explosions sounded every few seconds. Mobs were constantly falling off of the edges, apparently not smart enough to know that 'oh nether there's a giant gaping hole right here'. But none of that was compared to the screams. "We need to get in there now." Ivor growled, fighting to keep a snarl out of his voice.

Not wasting breath, Stella began to run along the bridge towards the city. As she ran, she reached into her inventory and pulled out her weapons. Ivor took off after her, just in time to see a Ghast swing towards them, eyes opening with a cat-like screech. Before Ivor could shout 'look out' Stella was already lunging through the air and slicing at it. Before she even landed on the ground the Ghast was dead.

* * *

They'd found a small group of guards struggling against a group of creepers. After quickly killing the mobs, Stella turned to the guard who seemed to be the highest rank. "What's going on?" she demanded, eyes narrowed. "The city is under attack by monsters!" the guard quickly reported, apparently either not noticing or ignoring the blood trickling down his face "They seem to be coming from the palace."

"Hadrien." Stella growled, knuckles turning white as she gripped her swords tighter. "We need to stop him." Ivor said, already starting to leave for the palace.

"I'm sorry Ivor." Stella's voice caused Ivor to turn, frowning slightly. As he tilted his head at her, Stella explained "I need to protect my people." Ivor hesitated for a few moments, but then he nodded "Of course. Be safe Founder." She nodded "Stay safe as well Ivor."

Ivor nodded again, and then turned back around. Continuing running, he ducked under a spider leaping at him, and was about to just ignore the group of zombies in front of him, when he saw that the person fighting them was Tim, as well as a few other members of Build Club armed with sticks, wooden swords, and there were also three archers.

Lunging forwards and slicing his sword sideways, Ivor quickly re-killed the zombies and then turned to Tim, who was staring at him in pure shock. "Ivor?" he breathed, reaching forwards and laying his fingers on the black haired teen's cheek. As Ivor was nodding, opening his mouth to respond that the Founder was alive as well, a sharp hiss interupted him, and moving on instinct he reached up, grabbed Tim's wrist, and broke into a run, dragging the innkeeper to safety around the corner of a burning building.

"You are very quick on your feet." Tim muttered as Ivor checked around the corner to make sure the creeper had not followed them. "But with all seriousness, how are you alive? I saw you go over the edge!" A small smile crept onto Ivor's face as he said "You know how you all thought there was nothing below you but air?" Tim's eyes narrowed, and Ivor could see that he was already piecing it together. "Yes..." he said slowly. Ivor's smile turned into an all out grin "Yeah that was wrong, there's land."

"You speak the truth my friend?" Tim asked, eyes widening. Ivor nodded, and then an idea began to form, slowly but surely. "Listen, I'm going to go and try to stop Hadrien. Gather up everyone you can, tell them to gather their things and be ready to leave. As soon as I get back, we're going down to land." he started to leave, but was cut off by Tim grabbing his shoulder. Turning in confusion, Ivor's eyes widened when Tim's arms wrapped around him into a hug. "Thank you, my friend." he pulled away, but kept his arms linked around Ivor's neck. "You shall be forever remembered as the savior of Sky City!"

With that he let go of Ivor, and charged out from behind the building, releasing a battle cry.

* * *

Ivor had gotten distracted again, this time by Gabriel and Jesse.

"Hadrien has taken over the palace." Jesse said, eyes narrow "He's holed up in the throne room, throwing those blasted spawn eggs everywhere."

"I need to get inside the palace," Ivor said "got any suggestions?"

Jesse's eyes twinkled as he reached into his inventory "Use these." he said, pulling out three potion bottles. One was a silvery pale blue, another an alarmingly bright green, and the final was empty. Ivor frowned at that one "There's nothing in there." he pointed out. Jesse frowned, and picked up the bottle, shaking it. As he did so a soft liquidy sound emerged. Jesse smiled "It's an invisibility potion. I made this one shortly before we left, the fresher an invisibility potion is the harder it is to see." he explained, setting it back down. "This is a potion of leaping," he added, pointing to the green one "And this a potion of swiftness." pointing to the last one.

Ivor nodded slowly, seeing where the man was going with this. "I'll take the potion of leaping." he said, having decided as soon as he knew what it was "I don't want to risk going through the front entrance where Mevia and Otto are, they'd see me for sure, and something tells me that those potions will come in handy later.

Jesse nodded, taking back the swiftness and invisibility potions. Ivor picked up the green potion and opened it. As he was lifting it to his lips and starting to feel it run down his throat Jesse said "I feel inclined to mention that Potions of Leaping are made primarily with Rabbits Foot, however to get the best effect, slime is added to boost the height of the jumps." He hummed slightly "It also has a peculiar side effect of staining the potion bright green."

Ivor nearly hurled the entire contents of his stomach.

* * *

The potion of Leaping worked like a charm, which Ivor would have been a bit more happy about if he hadn't known what exactly was currently in his stomach. He'd gotten into the palace easily, and with all the guards, Mevia, and Otto outside either attacking or releasing monsters, he was able to navigate his way to the throne room quickly.

"Back down and get out of my face Mar." Hadrien's voice was cold, Ivor could hear it as he crept through the hall that fed into the throne room. His potion had worn off a few minutes ago, and he'd been running at top speed. "You're delusional Hadrien!" Captain Marta all but screamed. As Ivor finally reached the large doors, ducking behind them quickly, he could see Hadrien caressing a golden egg with pale yellow-green splotches. Marta stood in front of him, clutching her axe tightly. Her stance was brave, but Ivor could see a small pool of blood under her feet. She was injured, and heavily so. "The people of Sky City will never bow to you!" she screamed."You killed the Founder!"

Hadrien just looked amused, something that made Ivor's blood boil."Yeah?" he hummed "Well, you're going to be next if you don't shut up."

"Now you listen here, I'm the Captain of the-"

"Not anymore." Hadrien interrupted, stilling his hand "Mar, I'm relieving you of duty." with that he threw the egg directly at the bi-haired woman, and it exploded into a Blaze Man, sparks flying around it as Marta screamed, lashing out at it with her weapon.

Hadrien laughed, until Ivor stepped into the room, sword drawn. "Hadrien!" he shouted, blue eyes narrow. Hadrien's head snapped towards Ivor, and his mouth dropped open. "Your time is over." Hadrien's eyes narrowed, and for a split second, Ivor could have sworn he saw a flash of gold in them. "I saw you fall." he hissed "You went down!"

"And now I'm back to stop you." Ivor said. Hadrien let out an inherent screech and lunged forwards.

Lifting his sword to block the white haired man, Ivor prepared to kill Hadrien if need be.


End file.
